Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 3 June 2026 Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (GECEX/CAMEX) published Resolução nº 907/2026 in the Diário Oficial da União (8 June 2026), applying a definitive anti-dumping duty for up to five years on imports of whole and skimmed milk powder (leite em pó integral e desnatado, não fracionado — NCM 0402.10.10, 0402.10.90, 0402.21.10, 0402.21.20, 0402.29.10, 0402.29.20) originating in Argentina and Uruguay. In the same resolution, GECEX immediately suspended the exigibility of those duties on public-interest grounds, pending the formal opening and conclusion of a public-interest evaluation procedure by Secex — making this a definitive-duty-recognised-but-unenforced measure. The investigation was initiated in December 2024 on petition by the Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Confederation (CNA), with Argentina and Uruguay together supplying 86% of Brazil's powdered-milk imports (754 million litre-equivalents of a 1.02-billion-litre total in Jan–May 2026).

On June 2, 2026, USTR published final actionability findings in 60 parallel Section 301(b) investigations — the largest simultaneous Section 301 action in US history — determining that all 60 economies maintain unreasonable acts, policies, or practices by failing to impose or effectively enforce a prohibition on imports produced with forced labor. USTR proposed two additional duty rates: 10% on the 14 economies with partial forced-labor regimes (Canada, Ecuador, EU, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Taiwan, UK) and 12.5% on the remaining 46 economies. Tariff rates remain proposed pending a July 7, 2026 public hearing and subsequent finalization; the actionability determination is final.

On 23 May 2026 President Javier Milei, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni announced the "Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones en Nuevas Industrias" (Super RIGI), and on 26 May 2026 submitted the bill (Mensaje 181/2026, expediente 0005-PE-2026) to the Cámara de Diputados — pending Congressional approval as of filing. The regime applies a US$1 billion minimum investment threshold (with ≥20% committed in the first two years), a 15% corporate income tax rate (vs 25% under the base 2024 RIGI), accelerated depreciation of 60%/20%/20% over three years, immediate export-duty exemption (vs year 3 under RIGI), import-tariff exemption, and 30-year regulatory stability across tax, customs, social security, and FX matters. A progressive FX-liberalisation schedule allows 20% / 40% / 100% free disposal of export-generated foreign currency in years 1 / 2 / 3+. Target sectors are industries that "do not currently exist or are in experimental/pilot phase in Argentina," including semiconductors, AI data centres, advanced biotech, 100% electric vehicles, lithium value chain (downstream processing, cathode, battery), green hydrogen, solar panels, wind turbines, onshore LNG, SMR nuclear, aerospace, uranium value chain, potassium and phosphorus fertilisers, and new petrochemicals.

Argentina's Ministerio de Economía issued Resolución 531/2026 on 20 April 2026, closing the changed-circumstances review under the anti-dumping regime of Resolución 915/2021 and excluding disassembled sports footwear with non-leather soles or uppers (HS 6401.10.00–6405.90.00) imported from China from the existing USD 15.70/pair minimum-FOB-value anti-dumping measure. The Comisión Nacional de Comercio Exterior (CNCE) recommended the exclusion following requests from domestic manufacturers Topper and Puma Sports Argentina, finding that high-performance sports footwear requires components and materials unavailable from domestic suppliers and that assembly operations add approximately 20% local value while supporting employment. The measure operationalises the Milei administration's deregulatory programme via a CNCE-mediated precedent for dismantling legacy protectionist AD measures without formal statutory repeal.

On 8–9 April 2026 the Argentine Cámara de Diputados gave final passage (137–111 with 3 abstentions) to a bill amending Ley 26.639 (the 2010 Régimen de Presupuestos Mínimos para la Preservación de los Glaciares y del Ambiente Periglacial), after the Senate had already approved the reform in February 2026 (40–31 with 1 abstention). The Executive promulgated the law as Ley 27.804 via Decreto 271/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial on 24 April 2026. The reform narrows the federal protection floor by limiting strict protection to glaciers and periglacial geoforms with proven hydrological function, and transfers to provincial governments the authority to define the technical and scientific criteria delimiting protected areas — directly unblocking the "ABCD" copper pipeline (Agua Rica/MARA, Filo del Sol, Josemaría, Los Azules, El Pachón) and adjacent lithium and gold projects whose prior periglacial-buffer encumbrance had stalled an estimated USD 30bn of investment, ~70% in copper / gold / silver.

On 1 May 2026 the trade pillar of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (the "Interim Trade Agreement", iTA) entered provisional application between the European Union and the four Mercosur states — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — following its publication in the EU Official Journal on 27 February 2026 alongside the broader EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA). The iTA covers goods (eliminating duties on more than 90% of bilateral trade over a transition period including immediate cuts on cars, pharmaceuticals, wine and olive oil), services, government procurement at federal and state level, intellectual property (344 EU geographical indications protected), SPS/TBT disciplines, and a sustainability chapter. Mercosur receives tariff-rate quotas on agri-food exports (beef, poultry, sugar, ethanol, honey). Provisional application proceeds pending full ratification of EMPA by the Council, European Parliament and all EU national parliaments and a pending CJEU opinion; only the trade pillar applies provisionally.

President Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation on 20 February 2026 invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2132) to impose a temporary 10% ad-valorem import surcharge on articles imported into the United States, effective 12:01 a.m. EST on 24 February 2026. The proclamation was issued within hours of the US Supreme Court's 20 February 2026 ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, which held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to set tariffs and vacated the IEEPA-based reciprocal-tariff regime previously in effect. The Section 122 surcharge is statutorily limited to 150 days (terminates 24 July 2026 absent Congressional extension) and the statute caps any such surcharge at 15% ad valorem. Goods qualifying as USMCA originating from Canada or Mexico are exempt; CAFTA-DR textile/apparel articles meeting specified rules of origin are exempt; and a substantial product-exception list excludes critical minerals, energy products, certain pharmaceuticals, electronics, vehicles, aerospace products, specified agricultural goods, and goods already subject to Section 232 duties (the Section 122 duty does not stack on Section 232).

On 4 February 2026, Argentina and the United States signed the Framework Instrument for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals at the inaugural FORGE Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, DC. The instrument commits both parties to cooperation across the critical-minerals supply chain — exploration, mining, processing, refining, and value-added manufacturing — with lithium and copper as the primary strategic targets given Argentina's position as the world's fourth-largest holder of lithium reserves and an emerging copper producer in the Salta, Catamarca, and San Juan provinces. The framework is one of eleven founding bilateral instruments signed simultaneously under the FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) architecture and operationalises the Trump-Milei strategic alignment as a binding supply-chain coordination instrument. Argentina's mining-export trajectory is projected to surpass USD 20bn over the next seven years under the combined RIGI + bilateral-framework investment pull.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolución 6/2026 (Boletín Oficial, 15 January 2026) approving Minas Argentinas SA Sucursal Dedicada RIGI I – Nuevo Gualcamayo ("MASA-SD," CUIT 30-71915462-6) as a Único Proyecto beneficiary of the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742. The project covers exploration of the Gualcamayo 1 and 2 mining concessions in San Juan province and feasibility/construction of a processing plant for the "Carbonatos Profundos (DCP)" gold-silver deposit, with a declared total investment of USD 519,647,635 in computable assets. MASA-SD's RIGI accession dates to 27 November 2025; it must complete 40% of the minimum qualifying investment within two years and reach the full minimum by 31 December 2028. This is a follow-on RIGI approval at the existing Gualcamayo mine site (operated by Minas Argentinas SA, owned by Eris LLC since a September 2023 acquisition from Colombia's Mineros S.A.), extending the mine's life via a new deep-carbonate ore body rather than a greenfield project.

On 27 December 2025 the Government of the Russian Federation, via an order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, allocated an additional RUB 5 billion (approx. USD 63.9 million) from the government's reserve fund to subsidise preferential interest rates on investment and short-term loans to agricultural producers and processors of crop products. The order amends the government's August 2025 preferential-lending distribution and brings total federal subsidisation of the 2025 preferential agricultural credit programme to RUB 41.7 billion. The measure preserves the subsidised rate on previously issued loans rather than creating new credit lines, freeing working capital for producers to expand output.

On 15 December 2025 the Government of the Russian Federation, via Order No. 3758-р signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, allocated an additional RUB 60.58 billion (approx. USD 759 million) from the government's reserve fund to subsidise interest payments and provide financial grants to Russian credit organisations supporting preferential loans to agricultural producers. The allocation preserves preferential interest rates on roughly 48,000 previously issued loans, freeing working capital for producers to expand output of cereals, fruit and vegetables. It brings total 2025 federal subsidisation of the preferential agricultural credit programme to RUB 250.1 billion.

On 5 February 2026, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno signed in Washington the United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI), formalising the framework jointly announced on 13 November 2025. The agreement is the first standalone bilateral trade-and-investment instrument concluded by the second Trump administration and the first FTA-style agreement signed under the post-IEEPA reciprocal-tariff architecture (Executive Order 14257, "Liberation Day"). On the US side, the ARTI sets out three tariff schedules: (i) Schedule 2A suspends additional reciprocal tariffs under EO 14257 for specified Argentine-origin goods (covering "unavailable natural resources" and non-patented pharmaceutical inputs); (ii) Schedule 2B grants a zero additional reciprocal tariff for designated Argentine agricultural products under EO 14360; and (iii) caps additional ad-valorem duties on other goods at 10% above MFN rates, inclusive of IEEPA reciprocal tariffs. On the Argentine side, illustrative tariff-rate quotas include duty-free access for 80,000 MT of US beef in calendar year 2026, 1,000 MT for cheese, 870 MT for almonds, 40 MT in-shell + 40 MT shelled for pistachios, 80,000 litres for wine (<2 L bottles), and preferential treatment for 10,000 motor vehicles meeting defined technical parameters. Argentina additionally commits to broader preferential market access on medicines, chemicals, machinery, information-technology products, medical devices, and a wide range of agricultural goods, alongside IP-enforcement upgrades (counterfeit/pirated-goods enforcement, patentability criteria, patent-backlog reduction, geographical indications) and investment-facilitation commitments that align Argentina's regime with US-preferred standards on regulatory cooperation, labour and environment.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 809 on 23 October 2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 24 October 2025, amending Annex I of the base IT and telecommunications-goods Ex-Tarifário regime (GECEX Resolution 323/2022) and the Single Annex of GECEX Resolution 781/2025. The resolution moves NCM tariff lines between the two annexes: items excluded from Annex I revert to Brazil's standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) rate, while items added to the 781/2025 Single Annex retain the reduced 0% Ex-tarifário rate. Global Trade Alert's intervention-level coding splits the rebalancing into a liberalising leg (116 products losing duty) and a restrictive leg (103 products across 26 six-digit NCM headings reverting to standard duty), while a Brazilian legal database separately estimates roughly 139 total Annex I line items affected (NCM range 8443.32.99– 9032.90.99), plus one item (NCM 8543.70.99, Ex 375, digital audio mixers) with updated technical specifications. The change took effect 31 October 2025, seven days after publication.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolution 1553/2025 (Boletín Oficial, 14 October 2025) approving Andes Corporación Minera SA's ("ACM," the project vehicle for the McEwen Copper-led Los Azules deposit in San Juan province) adhesion to the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742. The resolution locks in RIGI's 30-year tax, customs and FX stability package — including customs-duty exemption on capital-goods imports, a reduced corporate tax rate and phased FX-repatriation relief — for a declared total investment of USD 2.672 billion (USD 2.35bn of computable assets). ACM's accession dates to 25 September 2025; the company must complete 40% of the minimum qualifying investment within two years and reach the full minimum by 31 December 2027. This is the second mining project (after Rio Tinto's Rincón lithium plant) and the first copper project approved under RIGI, positioning Los Azules as the flagship test case for Argentina's bid to become a significant Western-aligned copper supplier outside Chile and Peru.

Decreto 685/2025, signed by President Javier Milei with Chief of Cabinet Guillermo Francos and Economy Minister Luis Caputo, cuts Argentina's Derecho de Exportación (DEX) rate to 0% on 145 meat and live-animal products (98 six-digit NCM codes) — bovine, poultry, porcine, caprine, and ovine — from the previously applicable 5% rate. Published in the Boletín Oficial on 23 September 2025 and effective 24 September, the measure runs through 31 October 2025. Exporters must liquidate at least 90% of foreign-exchange proceeds within three business days of shipping- permit authorization or lose the 0% rate retroactively. Government and press estimates put the anticipated foreign-exchange liquidation impact at USD 800M-1.2B over the window, against an estimated USD 150-200M fiscal cost in foregone export-duty revenue.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 30/2025-26 on 18 September 2025, inserting a new import policy condition under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy) for ATS-8 — (4R-Cis)-1,1-Dimethylethyl-6- cyanomethyl-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4-acetate (HS 2932.99), the key synthesis intermediate for Atorvastatin, a National List of Essential Medicines cholesterol-lowering statin API. Imports with a declared CIF value below USD 111/kg are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 September 2026. Global Trade Alert records China, Argentina and Canada among the affected exporters; global merchant-market ATS-8 supply is concentrated among Chinese producers.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolution 1271/2025 (Boletín Oficial, 28 August 2025) approving Galán Litio SA's ("Galán," the local vehicle of ASX-listed Galán Lithium, 100%-owned) adhesion to the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742 for its Hombre Muerto Oeste (HMW) lithium brine project in Catamarca province. The resolution locks in RIGI's 30-year tax, customs and FX stability package — including duty-free import of qualifying capital goods, reduced corporate tax and phased FX-repatriation access — for a declared investment of USD 380 million, targeting 12,000 tonnes/year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) capacity. Galán must complete 40% of the minimum qualifying investment within two years, with the full commitment due by 31 December 2029. This is one of several lithium projects approved under RIGI following Rio Tinto's Rincón plant, extending the regime's use as Argentina's primary vehicle for attracting foreign capital into its lithium triangle output alongside prior copper (Los Azules) and lithium approvals.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolución 1254/2025 (Boletín Oficial, 27 August 2025) approving the adhesion of Generación Eléctrica Argentina Renovable I SA's dedicated branch ("GEAR I SDE") to the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742, for the 180 MW "P.E. Olavarría" wind farm in Olavarría, Buenos Aires province. The declared total investment is USD 275.59 million (USD 255.11 million in computable assets), granting the project RIGI's 30-year tax, customs and FX-stability package. GEAR I SDE's accession dates to 25 July 2025; it must reach 40% of the minimum qualifying investment within two years and complete the minimum by 30 November 2027. The plant is designed to supply ArcelorMittal Acindar's Argentine steel plants directly rather than to export power, substituting an estimated 20% of national electricity consumption equivalent for the offtaker and qualifying for import-tariff relief on capital goods under Law 27.742 Article 190.

On 6 August 2025, President Javier Milei signed Decreto 563/2025 (countersigned by Chief of Cabinet Guillermo Francos and Economy Minister Luis Caputo). Published in the Boletín Oficial on 7 August 2025 and effective the following day, the decree sets the Derecho de Exportación (DEX) rate to 0% on 231 mining-sector NCM tariff positions covering construction minerals, non-metallic minerals, metallic mining goods (including copper concentrates and iron ore), and certain mineral fuels and precious/semi-precious stones — eliminating the 4.5% baseline rate previously in force on these categories. The decree expressly repeals Decreto 308/2022, which had created an Optional Copper Export Registry that never became operational. Mining is Argentina's fifth-largest export complex and accounts for roughly 80% of provincial exports in Jujuy, San Juan, Santa Cruz, and Catamarca; the measure complements RIGI (Law 27.742) by adding a sector-wide tariff floor underneath RIGI's project-level fiscal stability.

Published in the Boletín Oficial on 29 July 2025 and effective the following day, Decreto 513/2025 replaces Annexes I, II, and III of Decreto 557/2023, which govern Argentina's exceptions to the MERCOSUR Common External Tariff (AEC). The decree cuts the extrazone import duty on 27 capital-goods tariff lines — machinery, tools, and industrial equipment previously taxed at 20-35% — to a uniform 12.6%, aiming to lower input costs for domestic manufacturers and encourage technology adoption. Two NCM positions (2934.99.22 and 8450.20.20, covering certain chemical inputs and washing machines) receive a 60-day transitional carve-out preserving the prior tariff treatment for goods already in transit or in customs primary zones at the decree's effective date.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolution 1028/2025 (Boletín Oficial No. 35,711, 22 July 2025) approving Sidersa Acería SDE's ("Proyecto Siderúrgico Argentino SIDERSA") adhesion to the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) under Law 27.742, with the vehicle's accession dated 30 May 2025. The USD 300 million project is an integrated long-steel plant (360,000 tonnes/year of construction-grade iron and steel products, scrap-based) in San Nicolás, Buenos Aires province, and is the first purely industrial (non-mining) project approved under RIGI. The approval grants Sidersa the regime's tax, customs-duty and internal-taxation stability package for capital-goods and input imports over the project's benefit period. The project is billed as Argentina's first new integrated steelworks construction in over 50 years, targeting import substitution in construction-grade steel with an estimated 300 direct and ~3,500 indirect jobs (scrap collection, downstream construction).

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolución 938/2025, amending Resolución 256/2000, the import-duty regime for capital goods that constitute large industrial investment projects. The amendment adds electric-energy-generation projects to the regime's eligible activities (previously limited to production lines), cuts the mandatory local-content purchase requirement to 10% of imports' total FOB value, extends the compliance window to one year after project approval, shortens the mandatory asset-holding period to 12 months after startup (or until guarantee release, whichever is first), and pushes the accounting/closeout deadline for pre-Dec-18-2024 pending projects to December 31, 2026. The measure took effect the day after its July 11, 2025 publication in the Boletín Oficial.

Decreto 449/2025, signed by President Javier Milei on 4 July 2025 and published in the Boletín Oficial on 7 July 2025, modifies Argentina's Mining Investment Law (Ley 24.196, in force since 1993) and the National Geological Information Bank Law (Ley 24.466), invoking the deregulation authority granted by the Ley de Bases (Ley 27.742). The decree (i) restructures the Article 10 fiscal-stability certificate, replacing the multi-jurisdiction tax-consolidation requirement with a single-date statement anchored to the feasibility-study presentation date; (ii) replaces the previous 1,000+-data-field investment-validation form with an annual sworn declaration accompanied by an independent third-party technical-attestation report (modified Article 18); and (iii) reassigns administration of the National Geological Information Bank from the Mining Secretariat to SEGEMAR (Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino), while requiring all Mining Investment Regime beneficiaries to submit surface geological data to the national database. Decreto 449/2025 is procedural rather than market-moving: it does not alter tax rates, royalties, or export duties, but it accelerates certificate issuance and reduces administrative friction for mining investors operating below the USD 200M RIGI threshold (Decreto 749/2024 / Ley 27.742). It complements the parallel Milei mining deregulation pipeline — RIGI for large investments, Decreto 563/2025 zeroing mining export duties, and the April 2026 glacier-law reform — and applies retroactively to pending proceedings.

On 11 April 2025 President Javier Milei signed Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 269/2025, published in the Boletín Oficial on 14 April 2025 (edición Nº 35.647). The decree repealed Decreto 28/2023, formally lifting the cepo cambiario — the foreign-exchange restrictions that had been in continuous operation in some form since November 2011. Operative provisions include elimination of the 80/20 export-proceeds-channelling mandate, removal of individual USD purchase and wire-transfer caps, permission for companies to repatriate post-1-January-2025 dividend profits, and replacement of the daily crawling-peg with a band float within a $1,000–$1,400 ARS/USD corridor with BCRA floor/ceiling intervention rules. The measure was coordinated with the IMF Extended Fund Facility (USD 20bn total; USD 15bn 2025 free-availability tranche) approved 11 April 2025, and operationalises the currency-stability guarantee embedded in the RIGI large- investment regime (Law 27.742, July 2024).

President Trump signed two Presidential Proclamations on 11 February 2025 reinstating a universal 25% ad-valorem tariff on all steel-mill products and raising the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25% on all imports into the United States, effective 12 March 2025. The proclamations revoked every bilateral exclusion and quota arrangement negotiated by the Biden administration with the EU, UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, and others under the 2021-2022 "alternative measures" frameworks, returning all trading partners to the baseline Section 232 rate without product-level or country-level carve-outs.

Decree 38/2025 reduces Argentina's agricultural export duties (retenciones) across all major grains and oilseeds effective January 27, 2025, through June 30, 2025. Soybean duties fall from 33% to 26%, soy products from 31% to 24.5%, wheat/maize/barley/sorghum from 12% to 9.5%, and sunflower seed from 7% to 5.5%; regional-economy commodities including sugar, cotton, and rice receive a permanent zero-duty rate. The measures are designed to accelerate foreign exchange liquidation by improving exporter margins under the Milei administration's macroeconomic stabilisation program, and represent the most market-significant single Argentine agricultural trade action of 2025-Q1.

On 27 June 2024 the Argentine Congress passed Law 27.742, the "Ley de Bases y Puntos de Partida para la Libertad de los Argentinos" ("Ley Bases"), the flagship economic reform of the Milei administration. The law was published in the Boletín Oficial on 8 July 2024 and Title VII established the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) — a promotional regime designed to attract large-scale capex into mining, energy, oil & gas, LNG, steel, forestry, tourism, infrastructure, and technology. Implementing Decree 749/2024 was issued on 23 August 2024 and the regime became fully operational with Resolution 1074/2024 on 22 October 2024. RIGI offers single-project vehicles ("VPUs") that commit at least USD 200M (with sector-specific thresholds rising to USD 600M and up to USD 2B for long-term "strategic export" projects) a 30-year regulatory, tax, customs and foreign-exchange stability guarantee. Headline benefits include a reduced 25% corporate income tax (vs. 35% standard), accelerated depreciation, full deductibility of inflation adjustments, an import-duty exemption on capital goods and inputs, a phased relaxation of central-bank obligations to repatriate and convert export proceeds (20% free after year one, 40% after year two, 100% after year three), and reduced dividend withholding tax. Disputes are subject to international arbitration under ICSID or UNCITRAL rules. As of mid-2025, RIGI's project pipeline reached USD 33.9B in submitted applications, of which roughly USD 15.7B (46.5%) had been approved across nine projects spanning steel (Sidersa), energy/LNG (PAE Southern Energy, YPF Argentina LNG), three mining projects, and infrastructure. The flagship approval was Rio Tinto's USD 2.5B Rincón battery-grade lithium carbonate plant in Salta (initial 53,000 t/yr, scaling to 60,000 t/yr by 2028) — the first mining project approved under the regime, on 21 May 2025. Strategically, RIGI is Argentina's bid to compete with Chile's lithium framework and Brazil's industrial policies for upstream-critical-minerals capex. Combined with the lifting of Argentina's FX controls (cepo cambiario) in April 2025 it sharply re-rates the country's project-economics math for multinationals — particularly in the Lithium Triangle, the Vaca Muerta shale, and pipeline/LNG infrastructure. Whether the 30-year stability guarantee survives a future change of government is the dominant political-risk overhang on the regime.

Signed by President Javier Milei and the entire cabinet on 20 December 2023 and published in the Boletín Oficial extraordinario on 21 December 2023, Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 70/2023 declares a public emergency across economic, financial, fiscal, administrative, pension, tariff, sanitary, and social matters until 31 December 2025 (Article 1) and enacts 366 articles across 16 titles that fundamentally restructure Argentina's regulatory framework. The DNU repeals or amends dozens of statutes to deregulate foreign trade (repealing the Compre Nacional buy-preference law Ley 18.875 and the price-control framework Ley 27.345), opens privatisation of state enterprises (Aerolíneas Argentinas, ENARSA, Banco Nación, Correo Argentino, Trenes Argentinos), dismantles the Ley de Abastecimiento price-control regime, liberalises civil aviation cabotage to foreign carriers, deregulates hydrocarbons export and mining permitting, and replaces the severance-pay regime with a capitalisation-fund system. It is the foundational enabling framework for all subsequent Milei-administration deregulatory instruments filed on the IPTM register, including RIGI (Law 27.742), Decreto 38/2025, Decreto 449/2025, and Decreto 563/2025.

On 8 December 2023 the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a direct final rule (88 FR 85479; FR Doc 2023-26532) making two export-liberalisation amendments to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). First, BIS removes Chemical and Biological Weapons (CB) proliferation column controls from the Commerce Country Chart for exports of certain pathogens and toxins (ECCNs 1C351, 1C353, and 1C354) when destined to Australia Group (AG) member countries, on the basis that AG members operate equivalent domestic CBW-export controls. Second, the rule revises the Crime Control and Detection (CC) column entries for Austria, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland, reflecting the updated US assessment of those countries' law-enforcement export-control standards. Both changes are effective on publication and reduce US export-licensing burdens for allied-country destinations without altering controls for non-allied markets.

Ganfeng Lithium (HKG:1772 / SZE:002460), China's largest lithium producer, has accumulated controlling interests in Argentina's most significant lithium brine operations through a series of transactions since 2019. The key assets are: **Cauchari-Olaroz (Jujuy Province):** Ganfeng holds 46.5% of the project alongside Lithium Americas Corp (53.5%), which commenced commercial production in mid-2023. It is Argentina's largest lithium brine operation, targeting 40,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate. Ganfeng provides offtake for substantially all lithium carbonate produced and has rights to purchase Lithium Americas' share of output at market prices. **Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (PPG) basin (Salta Province):** Ganfeng agreed in 2024-2025 to consolidate the PPG lithium basin through a new joint venture in which Ganfeng holds 67% and Lithium Argentina (spun off from Lithium Americas) holds 33%. The basin is one of Argentina's largest undeveloped lithium brine resources. The SEC filing confirming this consolidation was published in April 2025. Combined, Ganfeng's Argentine lithium position gives it a structurally significant share of Argentina's battery-grade lithium output and exploration pipeline — positioned within the lithium triangle alongside Chilean and Bolivian deposits but with operational production at Cauchari-Olaroz already running. The investments were financed through a combination of Ganfeng's corporate balance sheet and China Development Bank-linked project finance. Ganfeng has also established its own lithium hydroxide refining capacity in China fed from the Cauchari-Olaroz brine, creating a vertically integrated supply chain from Argentine salar to Chinese battery-grade product.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, adopted 31 May 2023 and in force 29 June 2023, requires all EU operators and traders placing seven in-scope commodities and their derived products on the EU market — or exporting them from the EU — to file due-diligence statements certifying that goods are deforestation-free (no land cleared after 31 December 2020) and produced in compliance with the relevant legislation of the country of origin. A Commission-administered risk-classification system assigns producer countries to low, standard, or high-risk tiers with differentiated due-diligence burdens. Application was subsequently postponed twice: to 30 December 2026 for large operators (Reg (EU) 2024/3234 and Reg (EU) 2025/2650).

On 6 October 2021 the governors of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca signed an interprovincial treaty creating the "Región Minera del Litio" (Lithium Mining Region) across their shared salar basins, establishing a joint Comité Regional del Litio to coordinate provincial policy on lithium research, extraction, production, industrialisation and commercialisation, and to present unified investment terms to the national government and foreign investors. Each province separately ratified the treaty into provincial law: Salta via Ley N° 8.289 (Decreto N° 905/21, published in the Boletín Oficial on 22 December 2021), Jujuy via Ley N° 6.278, and Catamarca via Ley N° 5.756.