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At the 52nd G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains (June 15–17, 2026, under France's G7 Presidency), the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a dedicated leaders' declaration committing to secure supply chains for critical minerals by diversifying sourcing, reducing excessive dependencies on any single foreign supplier, and coordinating investment and market-development tools across G7 members. The declaration references the Partnership On Wide Energy and Resources Resilience Asia (POWERR Asia) as a named allied cooperation vehicle, and calls for stronger G7 coordination on emergency supply-chain response and private-capital mobilisation for critical mineral projects outside of concentrated supplier states. This is the first standalone G7 leaders' declaration specifically dedicated to critical minerals supply-chain security, moving beyond language embedded in broader summit communiqués.

On 21 May 2026 the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) at its 473rd plenary session adopted a final affirmative anti-dumping determination against PVC paste resin (PSR) imports from Germany, France, Norway and Sweden, recommending definitive five-year duties of 25.79–31.55% to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) for formal imposition via customs notification. The case was initiated in July 2025 following a complaint by Hanwha Solutions Corp., and provisional duties of 25.79–42.81% have been in effect since February 2026; the final rates represent a notable reduction from the provisional upper bound. The KTC concluded that PSR dumping from the four European countries caused tangible injury to Korea's domestic chemical industry.

On 1 April 2026, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae and President Emmanuel Macron held a Tokyo summit and signed a bilateral roadmap on cooperation in critical minerals — the first formal Japan-France instrument on supply-chain resilience for rare earths and other critical materials. The centrepiece is joint government support for Caremag, a heavy rare-earths refining project in southern France due to begin operations in late 2026, with backing from Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), Iwatani Corporation, and the French government; the project targets approximately 20% of Japan's future demand for dysprosium and terbium (heavy rare-earth oxides used in EV motors, offshore-wind turbines, and electronic components). The two leaders also launched parallel high-level dialogues on dual-use AI, quantum technologies, space (including debris mitigation), cybersecurity, and a joint declaration on startups and innovation, expressing "serious concerns" over export controls on critical minerals and other materials affecting global supply chains — an explicit reference to China's tightening rare-earths export regime.

The European Commission approved France's €1.1 billion state aid scheme (SA.120765) under Section 6.1 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), authorising a tax credit (Crédit d'Impôt Industrie Verte — C3IV) for strategic investments that add new cleantech manufacturing capacity in solar PV, onshore and offshore wind technologies, heat pumps, and battery technologies. The scheme is available across the whole of France until 31 December 2028 and is the eighth CISAF cleantech-manufacturing- capacity approval, bringing cumulative CISAF cleantech support to over €10 billion. It is the first CISAF approval delivered via a tax-credit instrument, distinct from the grant-based architectures used in the parallel Germany SA.121215, Greece SA.117469, and Luxembourg SA.120921 approvals.

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).

France's third Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Énergie (PPE3), adopted by Décret n° 2026-76 of 12 February 2026 and published in the Journal Officiel on 13 February 2026, sets the framework for public energy policy in metropolitan continental France from 2026 to 2035. The decree codifies a 60% decarbonised-energy-consumption target by 2030 (from 42% in 2023), a 34% electrification share (585 TWh), and a reduction of fossil fuels to 40% of final energy consumption by 2030 (from 58% in 2023). It also formalises the EPR2 new-build programme (6 + 8 optional reactors) within the long-range generation-mix architecture, pairs with the Stratégie Nationale Bas-Carbone (SNBC3) for a net-zero-2050 trajectory, and includes an annex on clean-mobility development (SDMP).

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 848, de 29 de janeiro de 2026, amending Annexes IV (supply-shortage tariff reductions), V (Letec exceptions list) and VI (LEBIT/BK — IT/telecom and capital-goods exceptions list) of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The measure grants a new 0% duty-free tariff-rate quota of 2,500 tonnes/year for poly(oxyethylene) methallyl ether (HPEG, NCM 3907.29.92) through 26 November 2026; adds 0% duty treatment for an esketamine hydrochloride nasal-spray medicine (NCM 3004.90.39) and several pharmaceutical active ingredients including amprenavir and efavirenz (NCM 3004.90.78); and adds cellular base-station antennas (NCM 8517.71.20, 25,000-unit quota through 19 August 2026), diesel-electric locomotives (NCM 8602.10.00, through 25 February 2027) and panoramic maxillary X-ray equipment (NCM 9022.13.11, at a 12.6% rate) to the LEBIT/BK exceptions list. Most changes take effect 1 February 2026 (some 2 February 2026); Article 7 directs SECEX to publish complementary quota-allocation criteria.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 400 million, seven-year loan agreement with Swedish hygiene and health group Essity on 29 January 2026 (EIB project ref. 20210374, "Essity Health and Hygiene Products RDI") to finance research, development and innovation expenditure at Essity's R&D centres in Sweden, Germany and France over 2025-2028. The financing targets product and process development across Personal Care, Professional Hygiene and medical wound care, with emphasis on replacing fossil-based plastics with bio-based materials, cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and expanding digital manufacturing solutions; roughly 30% of the RDI spend is earmarked for feminine-care and incontinence-product research. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention (state act 96020 / intervention 151945).

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 846, de 15 de janeiro de 2026, amending Annexes IV and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to modify import tariffs and tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on 15 products, effective 21 January 2026. The resolution establishes ten new temporary duty-free TRQs for products including atrazine (NCM 2933.69.13, quota reduced) and liquid food preparations (NCM 2106.x), reduces the in-quota volume for two existing TRQ lines, and raises the import tariff on three chemical products — acetic acid, acrylonitrile, and a third L-series primary chemical — reverting them from preferential to standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) treatment. The measure is a routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance action in the same recurring Gecex 272/2021 TRQ-housekeeping series as Resoluções 799/2025, 815/2025, 821/2025 and 844/2025, rather than a trade-remedy or policy-driven restriction.

France increased the budgeted fiscal cost of its standing reduced electricity-excise (accise sur l'électricité) scheme for data storage centres for calendar year 2026. The underlying mechanism, codified at Article L312-70 of the Code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS), applies a reduced excise tariff to the fraction of a qualifying data centre's annual electricity consumption exceeding 1 GWh, conditional on meeting eight cumulative infrastructure and energy-efficiency criteria (dedicated digital-data storage/processing/transport function, secured access, energy-management-system certification, waste-heat recovery or efficiency indicators, water-use limits, and a minimum electro-intensity threshold of 2.25%). The scheme is a long-running (since 2019) fiscal-support instrument for France's data-centre industrial base rather than a new measure; GTA logs the 2026 budget increase as a discrete state-aid intervention.

Presidential Decree No. 1012 of 31 December 2025 amends the standing Decree No. 302 (25 April 2023) list of foreign-owned assets under "temporary management," adding 100 percent of the shares in Can-Pak LLC (owned by Poland's Canpack S.A.) and Can-Pak Packaging Plant LLC (owned by Tapon France) — the two Russian operating subsidiaries of the CANPACK Group's aluminium-beverage-can business — and transferring control to StalElement LLC, a newly formed Russian administrator. The decree entered into force on its date of official publication (13 January 2026) despite being signed two weeks earlier, and covers Can-Pak's Volokolamsk (Moscow region) and Novocherkassk plants, which together hold an estimated 25-35% share of Russia's aluminium-can market. It is one of a running series of company-specific amendments to Decree 302, Russia's mechanism for placing Russian assets of "unfriendly state" companies under state administration in reciprocal response to Western sanctions and asset freezes.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/19 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) prismatic accumulators under GTİP 8507.60.00.00.22 (4.9V–400V) and 8507.60.00.00.23 (>400V) whenever the declared unit customs value falls below a reference floor of USD 12/kg and USD 15/kg (gross weight) respectively. Below those thresholds, import is only permitted with a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General (İthalat Genel Müdürlüğü), which the customs authority requires at declaration registration. Certificates are valid six months.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 250 million unfunded partial-delegation risk-sharing operation with Natixis on 19 December 2025 (EIB project ref. 20240252, "Natixis Pan-EU Wind Power Package"), under the EIB's broader Pan-EU Wind Power Package Risk Sharing envelope (ref. 20230650, approved 13 December 2023, EUR 6.5 billion EIB exposure against a total programme size of roughly EUR 104 billion). Natixis will issue advance-payment and performance guarantees to original equipment manufacturers supplying wind farm components — turbines, grid-connection infrastructure, cables, transformer stations and sub-stations — against a total project cost of roughly EUR 4 billion, with the EIB citing an expected mobilisation of approximately EUR 8 billion in wind energy equipment investment across the EU. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95948 / intervention 151841).

KfW IPEX-Bank, the project- and export-finance arm of Germany's state-owned development bank KfW, announced on 17 December 2025 that it co-arranged a EUR 1.6 billion (approx. USD 1.88 billion) financing package for CEE RF9, a repowering fund managed by CEE Group (a Brookfield Asset Management-backed renewables asset manager), alongside UniCredit, CIBC, ING, SMBC and SEB. The financing funds equipment upgrades (more powerful turbines and PV modules) across at least 29 of CEE Group's 45 existing wind and solar plants in Germany, with individual plants also located in France, targeting a capacity increase from 457 MW to approximately 1.1 GW (a 140%+ increase) by 2030. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95847 / intervention 151684).

The French state, through the Agence des participations de l'État (APE), injected EUR 749.3 million into satellite operator Eutelsat's EUR 1.5 billion rights-issue capital increase, completed in two tranches (late November and early December 2025). The investment lifts the French state's stake to 29.65%, making it Eutelsat's largest shareholder. The Ministry of Economy framed the operation as reinforcing "industrial and digital sovereignty," financing Eutelsat's expansion into low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellations and its role in the EU's IRIS² sovereign satellite programme, positioned as a European counterweight to Starlink.

Banque des Territoires, the public-investment arm of France's Caisse des Dépôts group, granted a EUR 30 million (USD 35.2 million) mezzanine loan to E-Totem Infrastructures 2, an electric-vehicle charging platform owned by investment manager Conquest and built on technology from French IRVE specialist E-Totem. The financing is intended to accelerate nationwide deployment of the platform's charging-point network and was announced by Banque des Territoires as supporting "electric mobility and energy sovereignty." The measure is a single-company state-backed debt financing rather than a broad national scheme, and was logged by Global Trade Alert as a "Red" (trade/investment-distorting) state loan.

The European Investment Bank signed a strategic agreement with Crédit Agricole CIB on 28 November 2025 under which the EIB provides a EUR 500 million counter-guarantee, enabling Crédit Agricole CIB to build a portfolio of bank guarantees worth up to EUR 1 billion for clients supplying new European wind farm projects. The EIB cites an expected leverage of up to EUR 8 billion in real-economy investment across the wind supply chain and electricity grid by 2027, backed by InvestEU and forming part of the EIB's broader EUR 6.5 billion Pan-EU Wind Power Package. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95159).

Bpifrance Assurance Export, France's state export credit agency, guaranteed GBP 5 billion (~EUR 5.68bn) of lending arranged by a pool of 13 international banks (HSBC Corporate and Institutional Banking as lead/coordinator) to support the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England. The guarantee covers up to 95% of the non-payment risk on export contracts held by French companies (led by EDF, a Sizewell C equity partner) involved in the project. It was announced alongside the project's financial close on 4 November 2025, complementing a GBP 36.6bn term loan facility from the UK's National Wealth Fund that forms the bulk of the project's debt financing.

The European Commission approved a French State aid scheme (case SA.117491) that partially reimburses the "T2" pension surcharge paid by rail-freight transport companies for certain statutory employees who continue working in the sector after leaving incumbent operator SNCF. The scheme runs for ten years from 1 January 2025 with a EUR 225 million budget, ccompensating compensating new employers for the employer's share of the T2 contribution so that hiring former SNCF statutory staff does not carry a pension-cost penalty relative to hiring non-statutory workers. The Commission cleared the measure under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU as compatible State aid aimed at correcting a competitive distortion inherited from France's historic rail-pension architecture.

Russian Government Resolution No. 1545 of 6 October 2025 amends Resolution No. 851 (11 May 2022) to add Renault SAS to Russia's list of foreign legal entities subject to "special economic measures" tied to military-technical cooperation. Renault is listed as entry No. 75 and becomes subject to prohibitions on commercial transactions and on the use of investment instruments (securities/equity dealings) involving the company. The designation follows reporting that Renault planned to help manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for Ukraine; a related GTA-tracked intervention imposes an export ban on the same entity under the same resolution.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 41/2025-26 on 10 October 2025, inserting a new import policy condition under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy) for Sulfadiazine API (ITC-HS codes 29359013 and 29359090). Imports with a declared CIF value below Rs. 1,774 per kilogram are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 September 2026, aimed at curbing low-priced imports — Global Trade Alert records China, France and Israel among the affected exporters — while protecting domestic API manufacturers.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2025/9 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 19 September 2025, entering into force 19 October 2025 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on new pneumatic rubber tyres and inner tubes across 15 GTİP lines under headings 4011 (passenger, truck/bus, motorcycle, bicycle and agricultural/forestry tyres) and 4013 (inner tubes), with per-line CIF unit-value reference floors ranging from USD 3/kg (bicycle tyres) to USD 6/kg (steel-braced radial and motorcycle-tube lines). Imports declared below the applicable threshold may only clear customs with a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued by the Ministry's Import Directorate General.

On 18 September 2025, as part of the third phase of France's national AI strategy under the France 2030 programme, the government opened the "Pionniers de l'intelligence artificielle" (Pioneers of AI) call for projects, operated by Bpifrance and the NALU ("Numérique, Algorithmes, Logiciels et Usages") agency program led by Inria. The scheme funds disruptive AI technologies and applications across industrial robotics, healthcare, energy production/distribution and manufacturing through a three-phase funnel: Phase 1 (technical feasibility, EUR 100k-200k over 6-12 months), Phase 2 (demonstrator, EUR 400k-800k over 6-18 months) and Phase 3 (market launch, EUR 3-8M over 1-3 years), with projects re-vetted for technological and economic relevance between phases. Submissions run 11 September 2025 to 9 June 2026 across multiple deadline windows; as of the government's 18 June 2026 update, 51 projects (23 in a first round, 28 in a second) had been selected, including firms such as IMIND (microelectronics), Skipper NDT, Sagacity Health, Lutece Dynamics, HyprView, DeepLife, Phagos and Wintics, alongside multiple Inria-led projects.

Bpifrance and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa's corporate banking arm launched "Avance Défense +," a EUR 500 million short-term working-capital financing facility dedicated to France's Base Industrielle et Technologique de Défense (BITD), split evenly with EUR 250 million from each institution. The mechanism lets defence prime contractors pay suppliers ahead of invoice due dates or defer their own payments while subcontractors are settled on time, and lets SMEs and mid-cap suppliers convert invoices into working-capital liquidity via the Tréso2 digital platform (built by Pytheas Capital). Over 4,500 BITD actors are eligible.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a EUR 150 million loan agreement with Soitec SA on 10 September 2025 to finance research, development and innovation (RDI) activities and associated capital expenditure for the next generation of engineered substrates (silicon-on-insulator, SOI) used in the semiconductor industry. The financing covers a first industrial deployment line for the new substrate technology plus a related water-treatment facility, against a total project cost of approximately EUR 358 million. The loan was approved by the EIB Board on 16 July 2025 and carries a two-and-a-half-year grace period followed by a ten-year amortization schedule.

France's Ministry of Industry and Energy, under Minister Marc Ferracci, announced a EUR 200 million green-industry tax credit (crédit d'impôt au titre des investissements dans l'industrie verte, C3IV) for Imerys' EMILI project at Échassières (Allier) — France's first domestic lithium mining and refining operation. The award was made as the project's total construction cost was revised up to EUR 1.8 billion. Once operational (targeted 2030), the site is expected to produce 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, enough to supply around 700,000 electric vehicles and cover over 20% of French battery factories' lithium needs. The award was announced alongside a wider package of C3IV support: seven critical-metals projects received a combined ~EUR 809 million in tax credits, part of ~EUR 5.4 billion in supported critical raw materials investment nationally.

Presidential Decree No. 606 of 29 August 2025 amends the standing list of foreign-owned Russian assets under "temporary management" (established by Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023) to add the shares of Air Liquide's Russian subsidiaries, transferring control to M-Logistika LLC, a Russian company. Reported affected entities include Air Liquide's joint venture with steelmaker Severstal and regional operating units (Alabuga, Balakovo, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Kstovo, Kuzbass, Sever Liquid Gas), covering the bulk of the French industrial-gas group's Russian footprint. 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, Russia's reciprocal-response mechanism for placing "unfriendly state" companies' Russian assets under state administration.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior executive committee (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 779, de 28 de agosto de 2025, amending Annex V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The resolution opens a new one-year, 25,000-tonne tariff-rate quota at a reduced 3.6% duty for chromium sulfate powder (NCM 2833.29.60), adds two natural-rubber lines (TSNR and granulated/pressed rubber, NCM 4001.22.00 / 4001.29.20) to the reduced-tariff annex at 10.8% with no volume cap, and simultaneously removes three antibiotic active-ingredient import lines — piperacillin/ tazobactam, ceftazidime, and meropenem (NCM 3004.10.19, 3004.20.59, 3004.20.99) — from the same reduced-tariff annex, reverting them to the standard (higher) MFN duty.

Banque des Territoires, acting on behalf of the French State under the France 2030 programme, launched a EUR 500 million fund-of-funds called "Global Tech Coté" on 7 August 2025. The vehicle takes minority stakes (EUR 15 million minimum, capped at 10% of a target fund's subscribed capital) in privately-managed investment funds that in turn back publicly-listed French technology companies with strong growth potential, aiming to build up domestic asset-management capacity alongside the state's stated goal of channelling capital into equities. The selection window for management companies runs until 31 December 2026 or until the EUR 500 million envelope is exhausted, whichever comes first.

The French state, via the Agence des participations de l'État (APE), signed a contract on 1 August 2025 to acquire Atos's Advanced Computing division — encompassing the High Performance Computing & Quantum and Business Computing & AI units, commercially known as Bull — for an enterprise value of up to EUR 410 million (later adjusted to up to EUR 404 million after scope changes). The division employs over 2,500 people, mostly in France, generates roughly EUR 800 million in expected 2025 revenue, and operates Europe's only supercomputer manufacturing plant (Angers), including delivery of the EuroHPC JUPITER exascale system. The Ministry of Economy and Finance framed the acquisition as keeping "strategic industrial activities and key technologies" in French hands; the deal closed on 31 March 2026 with the French state as Bull's sole shareholder.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a EUR 250 million financing package with Nexans SA on 31 July 2025 (project reference 20240854, "Nexans Recycling and Electrification Investment"; publicly announced 22 September 2025), against a total project cost of approximately EUR 382 million. The loan backs Nexans' 2024-2029 research, development and innovation programme for high-, medium- and low-voltage power cables, plus copper-recycling and manufacturing-capacity investments across France, Belgium, Sweden and Norway. The financing is structured as a EUR 190 million tranche carrying an InvestEU guarantee and a EUR 60 million second tranche.

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.

On July 12, 2025, French and New Caledonian political parties signed the Bougival Accord ("Accord pour l'Avenir de la Nouvelle-Calédonie"), establishing a Pacte de Refondation Économique et Sociale that commits the French state to €2 billion+ over five years for territorial reconstruction, paired with a dedicated strategic nickel plan to rescue New Caledonia's three severely stressed metallurgical plants — SLN/Doniambo (Eramet), KNS/Koniambo (shut since August 2024), and Prony Resources/Goro. An interministerial mission under the Prime Minister was established to coordinate the recovery. New Caledonia holds approximately 25% of known global nickel reserves and supplies roughly 8% of world mine output, making the fate of its three processing plants a material chokepoint for battery-grade and aerospace-alloy nickel supply chains.

The French government, sole shareholder of state-owned IN Groupe, backed IN Groupe's acquisition of IDEMIA Smart Identity (ISI) with a capital increase, completed 2025-07-01. The deal — IN Groupe's largest since its creation, with press estimates as high as EUR 1 billion though terms were not officially disclosed — creates a combined entity with over 4,000 employees and consolidated turnover above EUR 1 billion, making IN Groupe the world's largest provider of physical/digital identity cards and second-largest passport provider. The Ministry framed the operation as building a "global champion" in identity documents to secure French/ European sovereignty over the identity and biometrics value chain.

France's Ministry of Agriculture, acting through FranceAgriMer, opened a EUR 45 million call for projects on 30 June 2025 to fund research and development of alternatives to chemical crop protection products (phytopharmaceuticals). The call — part of the PARSADA strategic plan launched in spring 2023 to anticipate a potential EU-level withdrawal of active substances — funds 3-to-5 year projects at 40-100% of eligible costs, capped at EUR 7.5 million per project, across eight agricultural sectors. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through 31 December 2026.

On 19 June 2025 the Council of Ministers of Niger, presided over by the head of the CNSP transition government, adopted a draft ordonnance nationalising the Société des Mines de l'Aïr (SOMAÏR SA), the joint venture that operates Niger's only currently producing uranium mine at Arlit. The communiqué transfers all SOMAÏR shares and assets to the Nigerien State and provides for compensation to existing shareholders net of legal obligations including mining-site rehabilitation costs. SOMAÏR was 63.40% owned by Orano (the French state-controlled nuclear fuel-cycle company, ex-AREVA) and 36.60% by state-owned SOPAMIN; the government cited "irresponsible, illegal and disloyal" conduct by Orano, the expiry of the prior mining convention on 31 December 2023, and a finding that Orano had taken 86.3% of cumulative production between 1971 and 2024 versus its 63.4% shareholding. The same Council of Ministers also nationalised the electricity utility NIGELEC. Orano announced the same day that it would seek full compensation through arbitration and reserved criminal-action rights against third parties acquiring SOMAÏR uranium stock.

On 18 June 2025 the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the BPCE banking group signed a EUR 300 million loan agreement to expand financing available to French small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) active in the security and defence supply chain, delivered through BPCE's Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Epargne networks. It is the first such operation the EIB has signed in France, and the second in Europe, under the EIB's Pan-EU Security & Defence Lending Envelope, which was expanded from EUR 1 billion to EUR 3 billion earlier in 2025 (a first tranche was signed with Deutsche Bank in Germany the preceding week). Funds are earmarked for SMEs investing in cybersecurity, surveillance, resilience, and defence technologies.

On 16 June 2025 the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a EUR 1.6 billion loan facility with French and Spanish transmission-system operators RTE and Red Eléctrica to finance the Bay of Biscay electricity interconnection, the first submarine power link between the two countries. First tranches totalling EUR 1.2 billion were signed at EIB headquarters in Luxembourg; the project separately holds a EUR 578 million EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grant. The 400 km link (300 km submarine, connecting Cubnezais, France to Gatika, Spain) will raise cross-border exchange capacity from 2,800 MW to 5,000 MW and is expected to enter service in 2028.

The Gabonese Council of Ministers on 30 May 2025 adopted a decision prohibiting all exports of raw (crude) manganese ore effective 1 January 2029, requiring that all manganese mined in Gabon be processed domestically before export. A Commission has been established to draft the implementing regulation, and the Ministry of Industry and Local Transformation is working with COMILOG (Eramet) on transition modalities including the planned Moanda ferromanganese plant (300 kt/yr capacity). The measure applies to the world's #2 manganese producer (~25% of global reserves; ~8 Mt/yr current output, the bulk via COMILOG-Eramet), forcing upstream beneficiation onto Eramet/COMILOG, CITIC, and Ningbo Steel. The ban is the flagship industrial-policy instrument of the "Gabon Industriel 2035" national strategy under President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema.

Bpifrance, France's state-owned public investment bank, took a 1.8% equity stake with board representation in Opella — the Sanofi-spun-off consumer healthcare unit that makes Doliprane (paracetamol) and other OTC brands — as part of the closing of Sanofi's sale of a 50% controlling stake to US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). Sanofi retains 48.2%. The stake was widely read domestically as a state sovereignty guarantee attached to a politically contentious foreign takeover of a company regarded as critical to French medicine supply security.

France updated its 2020 National Low-Carbon Hydrogen Strategy at the Comité interministériel de l'Innovation on 10 April 2025, releasing SNH II under the direction of the Prime Minister and Industry Minister Marc Ferracci. The 2025 actualisation revises capacity targets to 6.5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030 and 10 GW by 2035, funded within the France 2030 plan's €9 billion hydrogen envelope (€4 bn for electrolysers, €1.5 bn for end-uses, €2 bn for IPCEI Hy2Tech/Hy2Use French share). A new €4 billion price-support mechanism guarantees low-carbon hydrogen competitiveness against fossil hydrogen for 15 years; the strategy aligns France's "décarboné" taxonomy to include both nuclear-electricity-based and renewable-electricity-based hydrogen, distinct from EU RFNBO additionality rules.

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 Proclamation 10908 "Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States" on 26 March 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of finished passenger vehicles and light trucks effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 April 2025, with the duty extended to key automobile parts (engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, electrical components) effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 May 2025. USMCA-origin automobiles receive an interim deduction equal to the value of US-origin content; USMCA-origin parts that satisfy the agreement's rules of origin are temporarily exempt from the parts duty pending a Commerce-administered process. The proclamation is the first Section 232 instrument applied to finished automobiles in US history and the largest-by-trade-volume Section 232 measure of the second Trump administration, covering roughly USD 460 billion of annual auto and auto-parts imports.

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).

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.

On 20–21 June 2024 Niger's Ministry of Mines, acting under the CNSP military-transition government, formally notified the Director General of Imouraren SA (the Orano subsidiary holding the Imouraren uranium permit) that the perimeter of the "IMOURAREN Permit" returned to the public domain of Niger and was freed of all derived rights, in application of articles 59 and 61 of Ordinance no. 93-16 of 2 March 1993 (Niger Mining Law). The decision followed a 7 June 2024 ministerial "note d'information" giving Orano until 19 June to engage development works under the earlier 19 March 2024 mise en demeure, and the Ministry's finding that Orano's 26 April 2024 exploitation plan "did not meet our expectations". Imouraren is one of the world's largest known uranium deposits at ~200,000 t U (Orano-disclosed reserves, originally permitted to AREVA in January 2009 with mine-build paused after the 2011 Fukushima uranium-price collapse). Orano had held 63.4% of Imouraren SA against 36.6% by Niger state-owned Sopamin. Orano notified the public on 20 June 2024 that it took note of the decision, and on 4 December 2024 initiated ICSID arbitration against the Niger state contesting the revocation. The action is the first leg of the 2024–2025 Niger-Orano break (followed by the December 2024 announcement of loss of operational control over Somaïr / Cominak / Imouraren and the June 2025 Somaïr nationalisation announcement).