Beijing and Brussels remain “deadlocked” on trade in medical devices following discussions in Beijing this week, reports the South China Morning Post citing an inside source. The source said that “intensive consultations” were under way about Brussels’ plan to launch import safeguards against made-in-China plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Vice-Minister of Commerce Ling Ji–China’s deputy international trade representative–held discussions with Ditte Juul Jorgensen, the European Commission’s director general for trade and economic security, on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for a second round of trade talks, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The public procurement of medical devices and imports of Chinese PHEVs have been points of tension between Beijing and Brussels. The EU barred Chinese medical device companies from bidding for public tenders worth more than €5 million ($5.7 million) for five years in June last year after it said an investigation found “clear evidence” of Chinese discrimination against European firms in limiting EU medical device producers’ access to government contracts in China. The following month, China excluded EU companies without operations in China from government medical device contracts valued at more than RMB 45 million ($6.7 million).

The United States and China have agreed to reduce tariffs on $30 ‌billion of goods and launch a dialogue on AI, reports Reuters. Both countries made the agreement following Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.

The tariff reductions would apply to US exports such as agricultural goods, wood and cosmetics, as well as US imports including small appliances, toys, decorations, a ​White House statement said on Friday.

On artificial intelligence, the two sides agreed to hold a dialogue on the technology’s risks and benefits, with the next round of discussions set for November, and to set up a communication channel for AI-related ​incidents, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and ​the White House said. The ⁠White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence.”

The export-oriented Chinese province of Zhejiang has urged businesses to “grasp the window” of relative stability in China-US ties to boost shipments, reports the South China Morning Post. This comes as final preparations are being made for Leader Xi Jinping’s trip to Washington.

Major manufacturers in Zhejiang–which helped the coastal province grow its annual export value to the second largest among all localities in China–have been asked by local authorities in recent weeks to increase production and expedite delivery of US-bound goods, the South China Morning Post has learned.

The move comes after Zhejiang officials deemed that bilateral economic and trade ties would remain “settled” and in turn create a “favourable climate” for expanding exports to the US, the province’s largest overseas market.

China and Switzerland have concluded negotiations to upgrade their free-trade agreement, a deal that will eliminate Chinese tariffs on nearly all Swiss exports, reports Caixin. The move seeks to solidify Beijing’s economic ties in Europe amid escalating trade tensions with the EU.

The upgraded pact, announced in Bern by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Swiss President Guy Parmelin, will allow 99.8% of Swiss goods to enter China duty-free. The agreement rectifies an imbalance in the original 2014 treaty, which granted zero-tariff treatment to almost all Chinese exports to Switzerland but applied the same benefit to only about half of Swiss goods entering China.

The successful conclusion of the talks, which began in September 2024, comes as China navigates an increasingly fraught global trade landscape. By deepening ties with Switzerland—a non-EU member state closely integrated with the European economy via the Schengen Area—Beijing is signaling its intent to maintain a robust continental footprint despite ongoing tariff disputes with Brussels.

 Samsung Electronics and ​SK Hynix are evaluating chipmaking equipment from China’s Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) for possible use at their Chinese factories, reports Reuters citing inside sources. This comes as the South Korean firms hedge against the risk of tighter US export controls.

The memory chipmakers began testing AMEC etching equipment about two years ago, when uncertainty was mounting over whether Washington would continue allowing them to import US chipmaking tools into China, two of the sources said.

While the evaluations have yet to result in decisions on wider deployment, they offer the Shanghai-based company a ​rare chance to secure validation from some of the world’s leading chipmakers. More broadly, the trials underscore a paradox at the heart of US ⁠technology controls: measures designed to constrain Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions are creating opportunities for Chinese rivals to gain a foothold in foreign-owned facilities operating in China.