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

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on April 28, 2026 that China will extend zero-tariff treatment (preferential tariff rate of 0%) to all 53 African countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations, effective May 1, 2026 through April 30, 2028. The measure adds 20 African non-LDC nations to the existing zero-tariff scheme already covering 33 African LDCs since December 2024, making China the first major economy to grant full-coverage zero-tariff access to all African diplomatic partners. Coverage extends to all tariff lines except out-of-quota products (where only in-quota rates move to zero); eSwatini is excluded as it maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan rather than the PRC.

On 4 March 2026, the Council of Ministers of Côte d'Ivoire, chaired by President Alassane Ouattara, adopted two presidential decrees granting 4-year lithium exploration permits. Stargate Atlantis Minerals SARL received rights covering the departments of Dianra, Kani, and Mankono in the north-west Woroba region; Ivoire Lithium Resources SARL (ILR SARL) received rights covering M'Batto, Agboville, and Adzopé in the south-east Lagunes region. The decrees operationalise Article 8 of the 2014 Mining Code and mark the first lithium-specific mineral-rights instruments in Côte d'Ivoire's IPTM register, targeting Birimian greenstone spodumene-bearing pegmatite belts. Côte d'Ivoire ranked Africa's top mining exploration jurisdiction in 2025 with USD 186M in exploration investment; these are the first operational output of the lithium exploration pipeline endorsed by the PIRME integrated minerals strategy adopted in December 2025.

The Council of Ministers of Côte d'Ivoire, chaired by President Alassane Ouattara, adopted two presidential decrees on 4 February 2026 granting industrial gold exploitation permits to AMPELLA MINING CÔTE D'IVOIRE SARL. The first is a 19-year permit for the Assafou-Didibango project (Endeavour Mining) covering an investment of CFA 451.31 billion (~USD 750M), with average annual production of 7.99 tonnes and total production of 120 tonnes; the second is a 14-year permit for the Doropo project (Resolute Mining, ASX: RSG) in north-eastern Côte d'Ivoire, producing 6.43 tonnes per year and 59 tonnes in total. Combined investment across both projects exceeds CFA 730 billion (~USD 1.25 billion), and both permits clear the final regulatory hurdle for construction to proceed.

The Ivorian Council of Ministers adopted on 3 December 2025 the Politique Intégrée des Ressources Minérales et de l'Énergie (PIRME), a 15-year cross-sector extractive and energy industrial-policy strategy requiring CFA 38,000 billion (~USD 68bn) across three five-year phases to 2040. The policy targets doubling the mining-energy sector's GDP contribution from 7% (2022) to 14% by 2040, positioning it as the economy's second pillar after agriculture. Core mandates include a 50% local transformation target for gold, a 10 million-tonne iron-ore production target, a 500,000 bbl/day oil production target, 45% renewable energy integration, and a 38% reduction in energy-sector emissions — backed by national-content and value-addition requirements across mining, hydrocarbons, and electricity sub-sectors.

Loi n° 2024-1109 du 18 décembre 2024 portant Budget de l'État pour l'année 2025 (and its annexe fiscale, JO n° 21 of 26 December 2024, entered into force 10 January 2025) raises Côte d'Ivoire's gold ad valorem royalty (taxe ad valorem sur l'or) by two percentage points across all five price tiers — from 3% to 5% at gold ≤ USD 1,000/oz up to 6% to 8% at gold > USD 2,000/oz. The increase applies to all gold producers operating under the Code Minier régime and is collected on the value of gold extracted at the applicable USD-per-ounce reference price. First IPTM entry for Côte d'Ivoire; sits alongside the wider West/Central African mining-fiscal-tightening cycle (Mali 2024 implementing decree, Burkina Faso 2024 ALT mining code, Madagascar 2023 mining code refonte) and reflects a Ouattara-government posture of capturing more of the gold-price super-cycle for the state budget.

Law No. 2 of 11 January 2024 (Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale n. 10 of 13 January 2024, in force 14 January 2024) converts with amendments Decreto-Legge 15 November 2023, n. 161 ("Disposizioni urgenti per il «Piano Mattei» per lo sviluppo in Stati del Continente africano") into permanent law. The statute establishes Italy's first formal Africa-policy framework: a four-year strategic plan adopted by Presidential Decree (subject to parliamentary opinion), a Steering Committee ("Cabina di Regia") at Palazzo Chigi chaired by the Prime Minister, and a Mission Structure inside the Presidency to coordinate implementation. The Plan organises intervention along five thematic pillars (education/training, health, agriculture, water, energy / climate-energy nexus) across an initial nine pilot countries — Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, and Tunisia — with an announced ~EUR 5.5bn envelope drawn primarily from the Italian Climate Fund (~EUR 3bn) and pre-existing development-cooperation resources (~EUR 2.5bn). Positions Italy as a transit corridor and industrial gateway between African resources and EU industry, layering onto the EU Global Gateway / Critical Raw Materials Act perimeter.

On 16 June 2023, the Council of Ministers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) adopted Règlement N°02/2023/CM/UEMOA establishing a Community Mining Code, the first regional harmonisation of mining law across the 8-nation bloc in over 20 years (repealing Règlement N°18/2003/CM/UEMOA). The code harmonises licensing tracks (reconnaissance → exploration → mining), royalty and tax standards, rehabilitation and closure fund obligations, and community-contribution requirements across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Member states are required to transpose the code into national law within a prescribed conformity period; the Commission has developed three draft implementing regulations covering permit management, rehabilitation fund procedures, and applicable rights/royalties/taxes.

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).

Loi n° 2022-408, promulgated by President Alassane Ouattara on 13 June 2022 and published in the Journal Officiel de la République de Côte d'Ivoire (JORCI) on 19 September 2022, is the foundational local-content statute governing the entire petroleum and gas value chain in Côte d'Ivoire. The law mandates employment priority for Ivorian nationals, preference for Ivorian-registered enterprises in goods-and-services procurement, expatriate-substitution timelines, and technology-transfer obligations on all concessionnaires, co-contractors, and sub-contractors operating in upstream and midstream petroleum and gas activities. Implementing Décret n° 2023-441 du 24 mai 2023 created the Comité de Suivi du Contenu Local under the Ministre du Pétrole and the Plateforme du Contenu Local digital monitoring system under the Direction Générale des Hydrocarbures (DGH), operationalising annual reporting and three-year forecasting plan requirements for operators.

Loi n° 2014-138, adopted by the Assemblée nationale and promulgated by President Alassane Ouattara on 24 March 2014, is the foundational mining-rights statute governing all mineral prospecting, research, and exploitation in Côte d'Ivoire. Its 197 articles across 16 titles repeal the prior Loi n° 95-553 (1995 Code Minier) and establish the modern permit regime, a 10% state free-carry in all industrial mining projects via SODEMI, and the royalty + ad valorem fiscal architecture that underpins every subsequent mining-convention and fiscal-law amendment. As West Africa's second-largest gold producer (approx. 45 t/yr) with growing bauxite and manganese exploration, CI's mining-code architecture is a material determinant of supply-chain access for Western and Chinese industrial consumers of these commodities.