China sharply reduced tariffs on Canadian canola over the weekend, reports Caixin. The moves marks a major de-escalation in bilateral trade tensions following Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent visit.

China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed Saturday that it would impose a 5.9% anti-dumping duty on Canadian canola, effective March 1 and lasting five years. The rate is far below the provisional 75.8% deposit Beijing had required last year after a preliminary ruling found that Canadian exporters were selling at unfairly low prices.

A spokesperson said China has always preferred resolving trade differences through dialogue and had taken into account “reasonable concerns” raised by Ottawa before issuing its final ruling. China also suspended additional discriminatory tariffs on certain Canadian goods from March 1 through December 31.

The US International Trade Commission said on Thursday it would investigate the economic impact of revoking China’s permanent normal trade status over a six-year period, reports Reuters. The move would likely increase tariffs on Chinese imports.

The USITC, which studies trade and competitiveness matters and rules on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade cases, said its report would focus on US trade, production and prices in the industries that could be directly and most affected by increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to the higher non-MFN rates.

When he took office in January 2025, President Trump ordered his trade and commerce chiefs to assess legislative proposals to revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China. PNTR was first granted in 2000, allowing China to join the World Trade Organization, a move that catapulted the country into becoming the world’s biggest manufacturer.

Panamanian officials have searched the offices tied to the Panama Ports Company, the local unit of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, reports Reuters, citing local news sources.

CK Hutchison and Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A judicial official interviewed on a local television station confirmed a search had taken place, but did not name the business or what materials had been seized.

Panama’s top court recently declared unconstitutional CK Hutchison’s contracts to operate port terminals at the entrance to the Panama Canal, leading the government to annul the deals.

Chinese dronemaker DJI said it has filed a suit challenging the Federal Communications Commission decision to bar imports of all of its new models and critical components, reports Reuters. The ban also includes products from Autel, another China-based drone maker.

DJI, the world’s largest dronemaker, said in a statement it had challenged the FCC decision in the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. “It carelessly restricts DJI’s business in the US and summarily denies US customers access to its latest technology,” the Chinese dronemaker said.

The FCC decision in December meant that DJI, Autel and other foreign drone companies will not be able to obtain the necessary FCC approval to sell new models of drones or critical components in the US, but it can continue to sell existing versions. In December 2024, Congress ordered DJI and Autel added to the banned list within one year unless a security review deemed it appropriate to continue sales.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, reports Reuters, citing a senior Trump administration official. Were this to be the case, it could represent a violation of US export controls.

The official said the US believed DeepSeek would remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips. The official declined to say how the US government obtained the information. The official did not provide information on how DeepSeek obtained the Blackwells but noted that US policy is “we’re not shipping Blackwells to China,” emphasizing that DeepSeek’s possession of the chips could represent an export control violation.

They also said DeepSeek’s Blackwells are likely part of a cluster at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The model they helped train likely relied on the “distillation” of models made by leading-edge US AI companies, including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, echoing allegations made by OpenAI and Anthropic, the official added.