The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has taken possession of two ports on Panama Canal, after Hong Kong-based CK Hutchinson’s contracts were ruled invalid, reports Reuters. Logistics company Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Company will take over operations temporarily. 

The government said it approved two temporary concession contracts with AMP, lasting up to 18 months, for the operation of the Balboa and Cristobal terminals. Maersk subsidiary APM Terminals Panama will operate the Balboa port, while TIL Panama, part of the Mediterranean Shipping Company, will run operations at Cristobal.

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said, “Let me be clear, this does not imply an expropriation of those assets, but rather their use to ensure the operation of the ports until their real value is determined for the corresponding actions. I repeat, this is not an expropriation.”

A senior official in the White House was cited in a Reuters exclusive as saying that China’s DeepSeek has trained AI models on Nvidia’s Blackwell chips—the company’s most advanced. If this were true, Reuters said, it would constitute a violation of current US export controls. It gave no details about how the chips were allegedly obtained. The official said DeepSeek’s Blackwells are likely part of a cluster at a data center in China’s Inner Mongolia. 

The news follows an approval last month by Washington of Nvidia’s second-most powerful chip, the H200 to China—a move that caused contention among policymakers amid calls to limit Chinese access to US tech, citing concerns over both the threat to US dominance in AI and the potential for military applications. It’s unclear what this latest development means for the export of the H200 chips to China, and to DeepSeek in particular. 

The news obviously raises the question of to what extent Nvidia was aware of the sale of Blackwell chips to DeepSeek through whatever channels and whether there may be any consequences for them. All this comes as a backdrop for a planned Trump visit to Beijing in April.

Chinese state-owned companies are buying foreclosed property projects, reports Reuters. The move is a sign that government efforts to reduce massive oversupply in the crisis-hit housing sector are finally getting traction, albeit at a slow pace.

Analysts say the involvement of state firms may cushion the pace of further home price falls and ease the drag that the property slump has had on China’s economic growth since 2021.

But they say it could also prolong the process of the housing market finding a bottom as distressed assets change hands at a deep discount instead of being fully written off. “You’re simply putting your finger in a hole in the dam,” Sam Radwan, chief executive of Enhance International, a Chicago-based real estate consulting firm with Greater China operations, told Reuters.

China will impose anti-subsidy duties on certain dairy imports from the European Union for five years, reports Caixin. This comes after the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) concluded that government support had harmed the domestic industry.

The MOC said Thursday that the final ruling covers products including cheese and fresh cream and will take effect Friday. The decision formalizes Beijing’s trade measures on EU dairy products, though the lower tariff rates suggest an effort to limit the impact on consumers or ease tensions.

Under the ruling, tariffs on 14 sampled companies will range from 7.4% to 11.7%, while other cooperating firms will face a 9.5% rate. All other EU companies will be subject to the top rate of 11.7%. The final duties mark a sharp reduction from preliminary tariffs of 21.9% to 42.7% proposed in December 2025.

The European Union has increased tariffs on imports of ceramic plates, cups, bowls and other table and kitchenware from China after a review of anti-dumping measures in place since 2013, reports Reuters.

The 27-nation bloc will apply a blanket 79% duty on the products, replacing previous duties that had ranged from 13.1% to 36.1%, a filing in the EU official journal said on Friday.

The European Commission said Chinese ceramics producers were owned, controlled or guided by authorities, receiving preferential financing, land and raw materials. The EU executive constructed “normal” costs for raw materials, labor and energy using Turkish data as a reference and concluded that Chinese producers were exporting at artificially low prices.