The amount of money invested by Chinese companies overseas dropped for the first time since the financial crisis, according to a new report by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The Washington-based research and policy group ascribed the fall to declining Chinese interest in the capital-intensive energy and mining sectors. “It is a useful reminder that China is not buying the world,” wrote Derek Scissors, the report’s author and an AEI scholar. However, the apparent slowdown in transaction flow could be reversed by “a single large deal”. For the first half of this year, outbound investment totaled USD39.2 billion, according to the AEI. This compared to USD86.3 billion reported for the whole of 2013, suggesting a 9% annualized decline. Using a different methodology, China’s Ministry of Commerce reported USD40.6 billion in 2014 first-half deals and USD90.2 billion in 2013 transactions. The annualized percentage drop is almost the same. “While China’s USD4 trillion pile of foreign reserves, with perhaps USD800 billion more at state banks, suggests an unstoppable tide, investment cannot occur without opportunities in foreign markets. And the availability of these opportunities ebbs and flows,” wrote Scissors. The AEI’s China Global Investment Tracker recorded over USD500 billion in Chinese overseas deals since 2005. U.S. firms invested USD2.2 trillion in foreign markets during the same period.

China’s appeal to overturn a U.S. law targeting unfair trade subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO) has failed, although the Commerce Ministry claimed a partial victory when the WTO’s appeals panel said Washington violated trade rules by double counting the punishment on Chinese goods for being both subsidized and unfairly priced. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a statement the result was “another significant victory of China’s challenge against the United States’ abuse of trade remedy measures”. The dispute was over U.S. Public Law 112-99, also known as GTX legislation, which was signed by President Barack Obama in March 2012. Beijing had complained that the law “explicitly allows for the application of countervailing measures to non-market economy countries”, saying it violated WTO trade rules. China had also claimed that the U.S. failed to investigate and avoid double remedies in some countervailing and anti-dumping duties. The WTO panel ruled in favor of the U.S. in March. China appealed and the WTO appeals body disagreed with several of the panel’s interpretations of the law, but it did not have enough information to overturn the ruling, effectively leaving the March decision in place, allowing both sides to claim victory. The Chinese Commerce Ministry statement said the annual value of trade affected was USD7.2 billion, the South China Morning Post reports.

China’s trade growth strengthened last month, reinforcing the belief that the economy is stabilizing under a mini stimulus. June exports grew 7.2% year-on-year to USD186.7 billion, accelerating from 7% in May, the General Administration of Customs said. Imports gained 5.5% to USD155.2 billion, reversing a dip of 1.6% a month earlier. “The data suggest that both external and domestic demand are on the way to recovery,” said Zhou Hao, Economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. Zhu Haibin, Chief Economist for China at JPMorgan, said that although June’s exports grew less than expected, the outlook for the year remains positive. “Global demand will likely improve, and we expect exports to accelerate in the second half of the year,” he said. China’s trade figures have fluctuated a lot this year due to different monthly comparative bases and the government’s efforts last year to combat speculative capital. Overall, trade edged up 1.2% in the first six months, against a full-year target of 7.5%. China’s trade with the European Union in the first half gained 9.6%, with figures for the UK and Germany up 19.7% and 10.2% respectively. Trade increased 2.8% with the United States in the period and rose 1.3% with Japan. The trade surplus narrowed to USD31.6 billion from USD35.9 billion.

Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the Chinese government to strengthen tobacco control to save huge numbers of lives and to ensure the country has a healthy workforce to continue its development. She said there was a real risk that the economic achievements of the past three decades could be cancelled out by the huge burden of coping with diseases linked to smoking. Chan met Premier Li Keqiang, Health Minister Li Bin and Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress Chen Zhu during her visit to Beijing. “The devastation of tobacco smoking outweighs any revenue that you can imagine. It’s false economy,” she said. More than 80% of deaths in China are related to non-communicable diseases linked to lifestyle, including smoking and poor diet, while the global average is 63%. The Chinese government has ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but failed to meet a deadline to ban smoking in public areas. Anti-smoking campaigners say one major problem is that the organization in charge of implementing the convention is the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which also oversees the industry, creating a conflict of interest. China is the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer and consumer, with more than 300 million smokers.

Director General Francis Gurry of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) spoke highly of China’s achievements on intellectual property protection after the United Nations agency opened an office in Beijing. In a meeting with Premier Li Keqiang, WIPO said China’s “remarkable” progress in IP protection has helped transform and advance China’s economy and has been a boon to global economic growth. Li told Gurry the Chinese government is trying to help scientists and high-tech talent by reforming their rights to benefit from their research. He said China expects to enhance cooperation with WIPO to further develop international intellectual property rules. The ceremony at WIPO’s office was attended by a group of high-ranking Chinese officials, including Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun, Director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce Zhang Mao and Shen Changyu, Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). The Beijing office is WIPO’s fifth overseas following those in Brazil, Japan, Singapore and Russia. Established in 1967, the Geneva-based agency has 187 member states. China joined the organization in 1980.