Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

President Trump signed Proclamation 10908 "Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States" on 26 March 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of finished passenger vehicles and light trucks effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 April 2025, with the duty extended to key automobile parts (engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, electrical components) effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 May 2025. USMCA-origin automobiles receive an interim deduction equal to the value of US-origin content; USMCA-origin parts that satisfy the agreement's rules of origin are temporarily exempt from the parts duty pending a Commerce-administered process. The proclamation is the first Section 232 instrument applied to finished automobiles in US history and the largest-by-trade-volume Section 232 measure of the second Trump administration, covering roughly USD 460 billion of annual auto and auto-parts imports.

The Diet enacted on 31 May 2024 (promulgated 7 June 2024 as Law No. 45 of 2024) the "Act on Partially Amending the Act on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness and Other Acts to Create New Business and Encourage Investment in Industries". The provisions establishing Japan's first US IRA-style production-and-sales-linked tax credit took effect 2 September 2024 per METI's press release of the same date. Eligible enterprises with a METI-certified business plan can claim tax deductions tied to domestic production-and-sales volume of five designated strategic products: electric vehicles, green steel, green chemicals, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and semiconductors. The credit is available for ten years from certification (certifications must be issued by 31 March 2027), with an annual cap of 40% of corporate tax liability (20% for semiconductors) and a 4-year carry-forward. Eligibility is conditional on meeting wage-growth or capital-investment thresholds in each fiscal year.

On 19 December 2023, the Thai Cabinet endorsed the second phase of the national electric-vehicle support programme ("EV 3.5") covering 2024-2027, following its approval by the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee. The Excise Department published the implementing Notification on 28 December 2023; the regime entered into force on 1 January 2024. EV 3.5 combines (i) per-vehicle purchase subsidies of THB 50,000-100,000 for battery-electric passenger cars and pick-ups, (ii) a reduction in excise duty on BEV passenger cars priced ≤ THB 7 million from 8% to 2%, and (iii) up to 40% import-duty relief on Completely Built-Up (CBU) BEV passenger cars priced ≤ THB 2 million during 2024-2025. Participating OEMs must offset CBU imports with domestic Thai production at a 1:2 ratio by end-2026 and 1:3 by end-2027, or face clawback of the granted incentives. The package is the operational successor to EV 3.0 (2022-2023) and was designed to lock in the wave of Chinese-OEM gigafactory and assembly investment that EV 3.0 attracted (BYD Rayong, MG/SAIC, GAC AION, Great Wall Motor, NETA, Changan, Chery). By the August 2025 EV-Board meeting Thailand had logged > THB 137 billion in approved EV-supply-chain investment under the combined EV 3.0 + EV 3.5 envelope. EV 3.5 is the central instrument in Thailand's "EV Hub of ASEAN" industrial strategy and the principal regional competitor to Indonesia's nickel-anchored EV-cluster bid and Vietnam's Decree 182 investment-support fund.