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

President Paul Biya signed Loi n°2023/014 on 19 December 2023, replacing the 2016 mining code (Loi n°2016/017) and significantly enlarging state control over Cameroon's mineral sector. The law vests SONAMINES (Société Nationale des Mines) with an exclusive statutory monopoly over the purchase and commercialisation of gold and diamonds nationwide, mandates a 10% non-dilutable free-carry equity stake for the state in all mining enterprises, and introduces a production-sharing mechanism (1–5% of finished product for precious substances; 2–15% of raw ore for others) layered on top of revised ad valorem royalties (5% for precious metals, 3% for base metals, 10% for radioactive substances). The code provides the legal framework for SONAMINES-led reindustrialisation of large iron-ore and bauxite projects, including Mbalam-Nabeba and Minim-Martap.

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).

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/97 of 5 January 2023 formally identified Cameroon as a non-cooperating third country under Article 31 of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 (IUU Regulation), issuing the EU's first "red card" to a West African flag state. The Commission found that Cameroon systematically registered fishing vessels — including vessels with documented prior IUU histories — without adequate monitoring or flag-state control over their activities outside Cameroonian territorial waters. Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/405, adopted 20 February 2023, confirmed the identification and triggered the operative trade consequences: a total prohibition on imports into the EU single market of wild-capture fishery products caught by Cameroon-flagged vessels, a bar on EU vessels chartering or operating under the Cameroonian flag, and a prohibition on EU operators purchasing from or transhipping with Cameroon-flagged vessels in any waters.