Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 14 January 2026 President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 imposing a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of certain advanced computing chips and their derivative products, effective 12:01 a.m. EST on 15 January 2026. The measure adopts findings of the Section 232 investigation initiated 1 April 2025 (Department of Commerce report transmitted 22 December 2025) into semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and derivative products. Coverage is narrowly drawn to high-performance AI accelerators meeting specified technical parameters (publicly characterised as covering devices in the NVIDIA H200 / AMD MI325X performance tier), with broad use-based exemptions for chips going into US data centres, US R&D, US repairs, and other uses deemed to strengthen domestic supply chains.

Vietnam's 15th National Assembly adopted the Law on Investment 2025 (Law No. 143/2025/QH15) at its 10th session on 11 December 2025, effective 1 March 2026. The law replaces the 2020 Law on Investment (Law 61/2020/QH14) as the umbrella FDI framework. Article 19 lets foreign investors establish enterprises in Vietnam without a prior investment project, unlocking holding-company / regional-headquarters structures. A fast-track Special Investment Procedure (SIP) covers industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech parks, concentrated digital-technology zones, free-trade zones, international financial centres and economic-zone functional areas, targeting semiconductor, data-centre and 5G/digital-infrastructure capex. Appendix IV abolishes 38 conditional business sectors and adjusts 20 others (from 1 July 2026 only 199 conditional sectors remain). Operationalised by Decree 96/2026/ND-CP (issued and effective 31 March 2026) and Decree 103/2026/ND-CP for outbound investment.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations to remove three foreign-owned semiconductor fabs operating in China — Intel Semiconductor (Dalian) Ltd, Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd, and SK hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd — from the Validated End-User (VEU) Authorizations list (15 CFR Part 748). BIS framed the VEU program as a "loophole" that previously allowed these fabs to receive most US-origin chipmaking equipment, software and technology license-free, a privilege no US-owned fab in China ever had. After the effective date, every restricted shipment to these fabs will require an individual export license, reviewed case-by-case under the existing 2022/2023 advanced- computing controls. The rule is published as Federal Register document 2025-16735 (90 FR 42321), Docket BIS-2025-0555, RIN 0694-AK32.

South Korea's National Assembly passed the Special Act on the Expansion of the National Electricity Network (Law No. 20844) on 19 February 2025 as part of the bipartisan "Energy Trifecta Bill," with promulgation on 25 March 2025 and entry into force on 26 September 2025. The act creates an expedited siting, permitting, and compensation framework for trunk transmission-grid construction, consolidating 35 previously separate regulatory approvals into a single streamlined procedure and targeting a >30% reduction in grid-build timelines. It directly addresses the electricity-infrastructure bottleneck constraining semiconductor fab clusters (Yongin, Pyeongtaek, SK Hynix HBM), sovereign AI datacenter build-out, and EV/battery gigafactory load growth — structurally distinct from the K-Chips Act (fiscal incentives) and the Semiconductor Special Act (regulatory framework), as it unblocks the physical power-delivery constraint those programmes depend on.

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) committed in its 2025 Work Plan to establish a National AI Computing Center via public-private partnership (PPP), with an anchor envelope of KRW 2 trillion rising to KRW 4 trillion through 2030. In July 2025 MSIT executed the first major tranche: KRW 1.46 trillion (approx. USD 1.1 billion) to procure approximately 13,000 high-performance GPUs (NVIDIA B200 and H200) distributed across three domestic cloud operators — Naver Cloud, NHN Cloud, and Kakao. This is Korea's first PPP-structured sovereign-AI compute procurement instrument, structurally distinct from the AI Basic Act (horizontal regulatory framework) and the Semiconductor Special Act (fab investment incentives), as it directly addresses the compute- infrastructure supply constraint for AI model training and national AI research.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea passed on 27 December 2024 a comprehensive amendment to the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology (산업기술의 유출방지 및 보호에 관한 법률, the "ITA" or "Industrial Technology Protection Act"), effective 22 July 2025. The amendment grants MOTIE direct statutory authority to block or reverse unapproved exports and overseas transactions involving National Core Technologies (NCTs) — including M&As, technology-transfer transactions, and foreign-investment events — without requiring interdepartmental coordination that was necessary under prior enforcement-decree authority. Entities already verified as NCT holders must complete formal registration with MOTIE within six months of the effective date (by approximately 22 January 2026). Punitive damages for wilful NCT infringement are raised from 3x to 5x actual damages, and criminal fines for overseas NCT leakage are raised from KRW 1.5 billion to KRW 6.5 billion.

The Republic of Korea's National Assembly passed the Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Establishment of a Foundation for Trustworthiness ("AI Basic Act") in plenary session on 26 December 2024, consolidating 19 separate AI bills tabled in the 22nd National Assembly. The statute was promulgated on 21 January 2025 and takes effect on 22 January 2026 after a one-year preparation period. Korea becomes the second jurisdiction worldwide — after the EU AI Act — to enact a comprehensive horizontal AI law, and the first in the Asia-Pacific. The Act establishes a risk-tiered regime targeting "high-impact" AI in healthcare, energy, public services, employment decisions, and generative-AI labelling, with extraterritorial reach over foreign providers whose systems affect the Korean market or users (mandatory local representative). It creates an AI Safety Institute, a national AI policy "control tower," and R&D / standardisation programmes under MSIT. Penalties are modest by international comparison — fines up to KRW 30 million plus a one-year grace period before full enforcement.

On 29 November 2023 the Vietnamese National Assembly adopted Resolution 107/2023/QH15, enacting GloBE/Pillar Two rules into Vietnamese law effective for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024. The measure introduces a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) and an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) at a 15% minimum effective tax rate for MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million, placing Vietnam among the first South-East Asian jurisdictions to bind the OECD Inclusive Framework floor into statute. Subordinate Decree 236/2025/NĐ-CP (29 August 2025) provides the computational mechanics for the first top-up-tax filings covering fiscal year 2024.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security published a correction on 8 November 2023 to a rule it had issued on 17 October 2023 revising the Validated End-User (VEU) authorisations for Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd. and SK hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd. in the People's Republic of China. The correction fixes two omissions from the October rule: a missing word in the description of eligible items for SK hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd., and a failure to remove the standalone VEU entry for SK hynix Semiconductor (Wuxi) following its merger into SK hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd. No substantive policy change is introduced; this is a technical and clerical correction only.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security revised the Validated End-User (VEU) authorizations for Samsung China Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (Xi'an NAND fab) and SK Hynix Semiconductor (China) Ltd. (Wuxi DRAM fab) on 17 October 2023, expanding each from its previous restricted eligible-items list to cover "all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations." Both authorizations exclude EUV equipment and related components: Samsung China is barred from EUV items for NAND production; SK Hynix is barred from EUV items for DRAM production. The revision was published simultaneously with the broader October 2023 advanced- computing chip controls (FR Doc 2023-22560), giving the two South Korean memory fabs a calibrated safe harbour under the newly tightened regime.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 establishes a comprehensive EU statutory framework for all battery categories (portable, SLI, LMT, EV, industrial), imposing supply-chain due-diligence obligations for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and natural graphite; mandatory recycled-content thresholds; carbon-footprint declarations; a digital battery passport; and ambitious collection and recycling-efficiency targets, with rolling application dates running from February 2024 through August 2036. It repeals Battery Directive 2006/66/EC and applies to every economic operator placing batteries on the EU market, binding every EV, consumer-electronics, and stationary-storage supply chain that relies on DRC cobalt, Australian/Chilean lithium, Indonesian/Philippine nickel, and Chinese/Mozambican graphite.

Korea's National Assembly passed amendments to Chapter V of the Act on the Adjustment of International Taxes (AITA) on 23 December 2022; promulgated 31 December 2022. The amendment codifies the OECD/G20 Pillar Two GloBE (Global Anti-Base Erosion) rules — specifically the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) — directly within Korea's existing international-tax statute (Articles 60–83), making Korea the first jurisdiction globally to enact binding primary legislation implementing Pillar Two. The IIR applies to Korean members of MNE groups with consolidated revenue ≥ EUR 750 million for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024; the Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR) was subsequently delayed by the 2024 tax reform bill to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. Korea did not initially adopt a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT); proposals to add one have been debated in subsequent amendment cycles. The law directly interacts with the K-Chips Act (2023) enhanced investment tax credits: those credits reduce Korean effective tax rates and may trigger Pillar Two top-up exposure unless structured as Qualifying Refundable Tax Credits.