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

On 17 May 2026, Treasurer Jim Chalmers signed the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers (Disposal of Interests in Northern Minerals Limited) Orders (No. 1) 2026 (F2026N00326), directing six China-linked foreign investors to divest a combined 1,678,895,780 shares in Northern Minerals Limited (ASX: NTU) within 14 days of the Orders commencing on 18 June 2026. The six named investors are: Real International Resources Limited (619.1m shares), Qogir Trading and Service Co. Limited (523.5m), Vastness Investment Group Limited (271.3m), Chuanyou Cong (130.1m), Hong Kong Ying Tak Limited (95.3m), and Zhongxiong Lin (39.7m), together representing approximately 17.6% of NTU's total shares. NTU owns the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earths Project in Western Australia, one of the few ex-China commercial-scale dysprosium and terbium deposits. These orders are the second tranche of Treasurer-forced divestment of Chinese shareholders in NTU, distinct from the AUD 14 million Federal Court penalty imposed on Indian Ocean International Shipping in January 2026 for non-compliance with the June 2024 disposal orders.

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).

President Trump signed Executive Order 14257 on 2 April 2025 declaring a national emergency over US trade deficits and imposing a baseline 10% ad-valorem tariff on imports from nearly all trading partners effective 5 April, with higher country-specific "reciprocal" rates effective 9 April. The rate schedule was constructed from a formula tied to bilateral goods-trade deficits and ranged from 10% (UK, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, others) through 20% (EU), 24% (Japan), 25% (Korea), 32% (Taiwan, Indonesia, Switzerland), 34% (China, later raised to 84% then 125% during the April escalation), 46% (Vietnam), 49% (Cambodia). Multiple subsequent EOs paused the country-specific rates for 90 days for non-China destinations on 9 April while keeping the 10% baseline, pending bilateral negotiations.

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.

Australia enacted the Taxation (Multinational—Global and Domestic Minimum Tax) Act 2024 (No. 132, 2024) and its companion Imposition Act (No. 133, 2024), receiving royal assent on 10 December 2024, together implementing all three OECD/G20 GloBE charges in a single legislative cycle: an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR), an Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR), and a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT). The IIR and QDMTT apply to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024 (retroactive at enactment); the UTPR applies to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. All three charges apply to Australian members of MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million, administered by the Australian Taxation Office.

Russia Federal Law No. 127-FZ of 4 June 2018 "On measures (countermeasures) regarding the unfriendly actions of the United States of America and other foreign states" establishes the statutory authority under which the President and Government of the Russian Federation may impose counter-measures against states that engage in "unfriendly actions" toward Russia. The law enumerates permissible countermeasure categories — including import/export prohibitions, restrictions on foreign participation in Russian state procurement, suspension of international cooperation obligations, and prohibition of foreign-company services and transactions — and delegates implementation authority to the President (primary) and Government. It entered into force on the day of official publication (4 June 2018) and is the foundational parent statute for every major Russian counter-sanctions presidential decree and government resolution subsequently issued, including the gas-for-roubles payment regime, capital controls, parallel- imports authorisation, and asset-confiscation counter-mechanism.

The Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth Act No. 38 of 2011; assented 12 April 2011, commenced 6 December 2011 with the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011) is Australia's foundational parent statute enabling the entire autonomous sanctions regime — economic and travel measures imposed unilaterally by Australia independently of UN Security Council mandatory obligations. The Minister for Foreign Affairs may, by legislative instrument, impose targeted financial sanctions, travel bans, and vessel-dealing prohibitions on designated persons, entities, and vessels. As of 2026 the Act underpins Australia's autonomous sanctions programs against Russia, Iran, DPRK, Myanmar, Belarus, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Libya, Ukraine (occupied territories), and other regimes, and was materially extended in December 2021 to authorise Magnitsky-style thematic human-rights and corruption sanctions. Structurally peer-foundational to the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA), Canada's Special Economic Measures Act 1992 (SEMA), Japan's FEFTA sanctions provisions, and the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument — the ASA 2011 completes the G7+AU sanctions-parent-statute set in the IPTM register.