Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 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.