China’s Ministry of Commerce published two decisions on November 9 that keep the current US China trade truce in force past its expiry dates, each for a fixed and short period.
The first, Announcement No. 58 of 2026, issued jointly with the General Administration of Customs, states that from November 11, 2026 until January 10, 2027, the implementation of MOFCOM and Customs Announcements No. 55, 56, 57 and 58 of 2025 and MOFCOM Announcements No. 61 and 62 of 2025 continues to be suspended. Those 2025 announcements are the export control package adopted during last year’s escalation, covering dual use items and rare earth related controls. The decision means the controls do not snap back on the date the previous suspension lapsed; they remain paused, by a named instrument, for two more months.
The second, MOFCOM Order No. 4 of 2026, signed by Minister Wang Wentao, states that to implement the consensus from US China economic and trade consultations, China will from Beijing time on November 10 continue to suspend for two months the countermeasures set out in MOFCOM Order No. 6 of 2025 against five US related subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, the South Korean shipbuilder. The order cites the Anti Foreign Sanctions Law and its implementing provisions as its legal basis. The Hanwha measures were Beijing’s response to the US investigation into China’s maritime and shipbuilding sector, and their suspension is the shipping leg of the same truce.
Read together, the two instruments answer the question hanging over this week: the rare earth export control truce that was due to expire today has been extended, on paper, to January 10, and the Hanwha sanctions suspension runs on the same clock. Nothing in either document cancels the underlying measures. Both are suspensions with end dates, which keeps the leverage intact and puts a hard date on the next negotiation round. Exporters of controlled items and the Hanwha units’ US operations gain two months of certainty, not a settlement.