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

On 5 February 2026, South Africa's state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) made a USD 20 million equity investment in Frontier Rare Earths' local subsidiary to fund a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and corporate development for the Zandkopsdrift rare-earths and battery-grade manganese project in the Northern Cape. The investment was announced jointly with a technology supply and offtake agreement between Frontier and France's Carester SAS. The IDC holds an option to offtake up to 10% of Zandkopsdrift production at prevailing market prices, conditional on further downstream processing occurring in South Africa.

The Nordic Investment Bank signed a EUR 12 million (USD 14.1 million), seven-year loan with Koskisen Corporation on 16 December 2025 to co-finance the next phase of growth at the company's Järvelä sawmill and panel-production plant in Finland. The financing supports new channel dryers that expand drying capacity by roughly 15%, a new briquette production line, and modernisation of core-composer and scarf-jointing lines in panel production, part of a programme targeting sawn timber output growth from about 400,000 m3 to 450,000 m3 and plywood output from 65,000 m3 to 80,000 m3 annually. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention.

On 12 December 2025 the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) approved Act 1361/2025, amending the Mining Minerals Tax Act (kaivosmineraalivero- laki, Act 314/2023) on the basis of government bill HE 127/2025. The amendment raises the value-based royalty on taxable metals contained in mined metallic ores from 0.6% to 2.5% (a 4.2× increase) and lifts the tonnage royalty on industrial minerals and other useful rock from €0.20 to €0.60 per tonne (3× increase). Iron is newly added to the list of taxable metals (alongside silver, gold, cobalt, chromium, copper, lithium, nickel, lead, palladium, platinum, uranium and zinc). Tax revenue is split 80% to the state and 20% to mining municipalities. The amendment enters into force on 1 January 2026.

On 11 December 2025 the US Department of State announced the inaugural Pax Silica Summit, held in Washington D.C. on 12 December 2025, at which the United States, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Israel signed the non-binding Pax Silica Declaration. The declaration commits signatories to coordinate "trusted" supply chains across the full technology stack — software, frontier foundation models, network infrastructure, compute and semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, transportation logistics, minerals refining and processing, and energy — explicitly to reduce "coercive dependencies." The coalition has since expanded to add the United Arab Emirates, Greece, Qatar, Sweden and India (signed 20 February 2026 at the India AI Impact Summit), and on 26 March 2026 State announced a USD 250 million Pax Silica Fund intended to catalyse trusted-capital co-investment in critical-minerals processing and semiconductor supply chains.

The Nordic Investment Bank signed an eight-year, EUR 200 million (USD 232.7 million) sustainability-linked loan with Elisa Corporation on 10 December 2025, its second such facility with the Finnish telecommunications operator. The interest margin is tied to three KPIs: a 42% absolute reduction in Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 GHG emissions by 2031 (versus a 2021 baseline), and cutting the population in Finland and Estonia lacking minimum 100 Mb/s high-speed connectivity to 1% by 2031. EUR 100 million of the facility was drawn by end-2025. Global Trade Alert logs the below-market multilateral development-bank financing as a "red"-flagged state-loan intervention.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 815, de 3 de novembro de 2025, amending Annex IV of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) under the Mercosur supply-shortage tariff-reduction mechanism (Mercosur CMC Resolution nº 49/19). The resolution establishes five new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas — DHA nutritional preparation (80 metric tons/year), rubber gasket/retainer parts (6,250 kg/year), linen yarn (240 metric tons/year), ballistic steel plate (400 metric tons/year) and loudspeakers (5 million units/year) — valid 7 November 2025 to 6 November 2026, while removing an existing duty-free quota for monocalcium phosphate (NCM 2835.26.00), reverting that line to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff rate.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 90 million loan agreement with Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) on 22 October 2025 (press release published 30 October 2025) to finance safety and modernisation upgrades at the Olkiluoto 1 and 2 nuclear reactors in Finland, including automation and control-system updates and replacement of steam-separator components. The improvements are required under Finnish and EU nuclear-safety legislation and will be implemented progressively over a multi-year timeline. Olkiluoto supplies about 28% of Finland's electricity.

The Nordic Investment Bank signed a EUR 50 million, 10-year loan with Kemira Oyj on 17 October 2025 to co-finance construction of a new commercial-scale biomaterials production facility in Finland, with total project cost of roughly EUR 130 million. The plant will manufacture bio-based alpha-glucans using an engineered polysaccharide and plant-sugar technology platform developed with International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) under a partnership dating to 2020, supporting Kemira's push toward EUR 500 million in renewable-material revenue by 2030. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention.

Invest Ontario, the Government of Ontario's investment-attraction agency, signed a non-binding term sheet to provide up to CAD 17.5 million (~USD 12.7 million) in state loan support to Electra Battery Materials Corporation toward its ~CAD 100 million project to build what the company describes as North America's first cobalt sulfate refinery, at Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. The funding is explicitly conditional on the parties reaching a definitive agreement and is intended to reduce reliance on foreign-controlled (principally Chinese) cobalt-refining capacity for EV and energy-storage battery supply chains.

Presidential Decree No. 593 of 25 August 2025 amends the standing schedule of foreign-owned Russian assets under "temporary management" (established by Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023), adding as item 44 the 314,949 thousand ordinary shares of JSC Chelyabenergoremont held by Fortum Holding B.V. (the Dutch holding vehicle of Finnish state-controlled utility Fortum), transferring control to Rosimushchestvo (Federal Agency for State Property Management). Fortum was the sole shareholder, so the decree effectively nationalises the entire company — a 70-year-old turbine and boiler-equipment maintenance and repair service provider for power plants, with reported 2023 revenue of RUB 2.35bn. The decree entered into force on its date of official publication and is one of a running series of company-specific amendments to Decree 302 following Fortum's 2022-23 exit announcement and the earlier seizure of its main generation subsidiary Fortum Russia B.V. (renamed Fora Energy) and of Unipro.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a EUR 50 million (approx. USD 58.4 million), 10-year loan with Vantaa Energy Ltd (Vantaan Energia Oy) to finance electricity network investments for 2024-2028, including new power lines, substations and smart meters. The financing is expected to raise regional grid capacity by 250-300 MW and connect roughly 12,000 new customers. NIB's below-market development-bank funding cost functions as a state-adjacent subsidy for Finnish grid infrastructure buildout.

On 8 August 2025, Ukraine's President signed Decree No. 595/2025, enacting an NSDC decision "On the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)" against Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and its international corporate network. Sanctions were applied to 18 individuals and 17 legal entities identified as involved in attempts to integrate the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant into Russia's grid, participation in the seizure of the Chornobyl NPP, production and servicing of dual-use nuclear equipment, and export of enriched uranium through Rosatom subsidiaries registered in Switzerland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, and Finland. Named entities include Uranium One Holding N.V. (Netherlands), Rosatom Finance Ltd (Cyprus), and JSC Kirov-Energomash (Russia).

On 27 July 2025, President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached political agreement at Turnberry, Scotland, on a Framework Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade. The framework was formalised in a Joint Statement published on 21 August 2025 by the White House and DG TRADE. The deal establishes a 15% all-inclusive (MFN + Section 232) US tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU originating goods — including autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber, and chemicals — replacing the threatened 20-30% reciprocal tariff trajectory under EO 14257 (April 2025). Steel and aluminium are excluded from the 15% ceiling and remain at the 50% Section 232 rate pending negotiation of a quota solution. In return, the EU commits to: (i) eliminate tariffs on all US industrial goods, (ii) preferential market access for a wide range of US agricultural and seafood products, (iii) suspension of its rebalancing countermeasures under Reg 2025/778 (suspension effective 7 August 2025), (iv) expected energy offtake of $750bn (LNG, oil, nuclear) through 2028, (v) at least $40bn in US AI chip purchases, and (vi) facilitation of $600bn in additional EU corporate investment into the US through 2028. Effective from 1 September 2025, the US applies MFN-only treatment (no 15% top-up) to: aircraft and parts, generic pharmaceuticals and ingredients, chemical precursors, cork, and certain unavailable natural resources. The framework is not legally binding but anchors the bilateral architecture; it is the largest-economy ART-programme deal alongside US-UK, US-Japan, US-Korea, US-Taiwan, and US-Indonesia.

Business Finland granted €115.4 million in investment aid under Finland's EU-TCTF-aligned clean transition aid scheme to Easpring Finland New Materials Oy for the construction of a cathode active material (CAM) factory in Kotka. The €800 million total project is a joint venture majority-owned (70%) by China's Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co. Ltd. (300073.SZ), with Finnish Minerals Group (30%) as the Finnish state minority partner. At full capacity of 60,000 tonnes/year the plant will supply CAM for approximately 750,000 EV battery packs annually; first product samples are targeted for summer 2026 with commercial production in 2027.

Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue gazetted SRO 195-Ain/2025/17/Customs on 29 May 2025, amending an earlier motor-manufacturing SRO (163-Ain/2024) to reduce import duties on additional raw materials and components used in domestic electric motor and electric-motor-parts manufacturing, effective 2 June 2025. The measure lowers input costs for local electric motor producers as part of NBR's ongoing tariff-concession scheme for domestic light-engineering manufacturing.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding 18 persons to the Unverified List (UVL) and removing 5. Of the 18 additions, 5 are under China, 6 under Finland, 3 under Türkiye, 2 under Kazakhstan, 1 under Italy, and 1 under the United Kingdom — a geographic distribution dominated by Russia-adjacent diversion corridors. UVL placement does not impose a license-denial presumption (unlike the Entity List) but suspends use of EAR license exceptions for shipments to listed parties and requires US exporters to obtain a UVL Statement before exporting any item subject to the EAR. The rule was published and effective the same day, 25 April 2025 (90 FR 17339).

On 25 March 2025 the European Commission adopted the first list of 47 Strategic Projects inside the EU under Article 7 of the Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252), followed on 4 June 2025 by 13 Strategic Projects located in third countries — 60 designations in total. The 47 EU projects span 13 Member States and 14 strategic raw materials, with an expected EUR 22.5bn capital-investment envelope; the 13 third-country projects require a further EUR 5.5bn. Designation triggers fast-track permitting (max 27 months for extraction, 15 months for processing/recycling), preferential access to EU/EIB/EBRD finance, and Member State priority status, operationalising the CRMA's 2030 benchmarks (≥10% extraction, ≥40% processing, ≥25% recycling, ≤65% single-country dependence).

Naalakkersuisut (Government of Greenland), via the Mineral Resources Authority under Minister Naaja H. Nathanielsen, published the Mineral Resources Strategy 2025-2029 in January 2025. The strategy succeeds the 2020-2024 strategy and sets the operational priorities, licensing pipeline and investor-engagement framework for Greenland's mineral sector across the 2025-2029 window. Headline tracks: sustainability (social/environmental/ economic), targeted international marketing and export-import-bank cooperation to mobilise project finance, formal critical-minerals partnerships with the EU and the US (and Nordic regional cooperation), a certification system for small-scale licensees, and expanded geoscientific data availability. The 2021 Inatsisartut Act prohibiting uranium-bearing exploration and exploitation above 100 ppm is preserved.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule on 16 October 2024 revising paragraph (c) of 15 CFR § 740.24 (License Exception Implemented Export Controls, "IEC") to update the version date of the IEC Eligible Items and Destinations table incorporated by reference and to replace the long URL pointing to that table with the simpler address www.bis.gov/IEC. The underlying table update — posted to the BIS website on 17 September 2024 — adds Denmark and Finland as IEC-eligible destinations and modifies the entries for Japan. License Exception IEC is the mechanism by which BIS authorises shipments of the September 2024 plurilateral export-control items (advanced semiconductor, quantum, and additive-manufacturing technologies) to destinations whose governments have implemented substantially equivalent controls.

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.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 49 entities under 52 entries to the Entity List, effective October 11, 2023. The bulk of additions — 42 of 49 — are Chinese entities determined to be acting contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests, predominantly for supplying US-origin integrated circuits to Russian defense-sector consignees after March 1, 2023 in violation of export controls. Remaining entities span Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, UAE, and the United Kingdom and were designated on similar Russia-diversion or end-use violation grounds. All listed parties face a license requirement for all EAR-subject items, reviewed under a presumption of denial.

BIS added 28 entities to the EAR Entity List across seven countries, targeting four distinct threat clusters: a Russia GRU/UAV diversion network spanning China, Finland, Germany, and Russia; an Iran Shahed-series UAV procurement chain operating through Chinese front companies (designated under the Russia/Belarus Military End User FDP Rule); Pakistan-linked suppliers procuring for unsafeguarded nuclear activities; and two Oman-based entities supporting Yemen's Houthi forces. Russia's dominant titanium producer VSMPO-AVISMA was also added as a military end user. One Chinese entity (Zhejiang Perfect New Material) was simultaneously removed from the Military End User List.

Finland's parent foreign-direct-investment screening statute. Laki ulkomaalaisten yritysostojen seurannasta (172/2012) — originally enacted in 2012 to replace the 1992 act — was comprehensively amended by Act 682/2020, which entered into force 11 October 2020 to align Finnish national procedure with EU Regulation 2019/452 establishing the EU FDI cooperation mechanism. The Act establishes (i) mandatory ex-ante notification to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (TEM) for non-EU/EEA acquisitions of Finnish entities producing or supplying defence equipment, dual-use goods, or products/services critical to functions vital to society, and (ii) voluntary notification for any acquisition of a Finnish company with "critical interests for securing societal vital functions." Foreign-owner triggers apply at 10%, one-third, and 50% of voting rights or equivalent influence. TEM is designated the Finnish FDI contact point under Reg 2019/452. Confirmation is granted by TEM unless a key national interest is endangered, in which case the matter is referred to a Government plenary session (Valtioneuvoston yleisistunto); a denied transaction obliges the foreign owner to dispose of the shares within a stated period.