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

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.

Israel's Minister of Defense signed an order on 18 November 2025 revoking the Order Governing the Control of Commodities and Services (Engagement in Encryption Items) of 1974, with effect on 21 March 2026 (four-month implementation period). The 51-year-old standalone Encryption Order regime — which licensed both civilian and defense-grade encryption items through a parallel Ministry of Defense track — is replaced by a unified architecture in which defense-grade dual-use items move to the Defense Export Controls Agency (DECA) at the Ministry of Defense, and civilian dual-use items (Wassenaar list) move to the Export Control Agency (ECA) at the Ministry of Economy and Industry. Many B2C consumer products with embedded encryption are decontrolled outright; B2B / commercial products remain controlled but under DECA or ECA rather than the legacy Encryption Order regime.

India's Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 2,095.70 crore (~$236.4m) contract with state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for INVAR laser-guided anti-tank missiles to arm the Indian Army's T-90 tank fleet, procured under the 'Buy (Indian)' category which mandates domestic-content/localisation thresholds rather than open international tender. Global Trade Alert logs the measure as a "public procurement localisation" intervention that displaces potential foreign suppliers (tracked as Belgium, Israel and Italy) from competing for the contract. The deal is framed by MoD as an Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) milestone, with BDL having progressively localised guidance and propulsion subsystems originally licensed from Russian technology.

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.

China's Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism, led by MOFCOM, issued Announcement [2025] No. 10 on 9 October 2025 designating 14 foreign entities — Dedrone by Axon Inc., DZYNE Technologies Incorporated, Elbit Systems of America LLC, Epirus Inc., AeroVironment Inc., Exelis Inc., Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC, BAE Systems Inc., Teledyne FLIR LLC, VSE Corporation, Cubic Global Defense, Recorded Future Inc., the Halifax International Security Forum, and TechInsights Inc. (with nine named subsidiaries) — for engaging in military-technical cooperation with Taiwan, harmful statements concerning China, and assisting foreign governments in suppressing Chinese enterprises. The measures (i) prohibit the listed entities from China-related import-export activity, (ii) ban new investment in Chinese territory, and (iii) for the first time under the UEL framework explicitly prohibit Chinese organisations and individuals from transmitting data or providing sensitive information to the listed entities. Issued the same day as MOFCOM/GAC Announcements No. 61/62 extending rare-earth export controls extraterritorially under a 0.1% de minimis content rule, the package marks the first UEL deployment targeting counter-drone original equipment manufacturers and the first to introduce a data-transmission restriction.

On 8 September 2025, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a nine-measure package against Israel over the Gaza war, the centrepiece being urgent approval of a Royal Decree-Law to permanently codify in law the arms embargo Spain had applied de facto since October 2023 — a total ban on buying and selling arms, ammunition, military equipment and dual-use goods with Israel, plus a ban on port transit of fuel for the Israeli military and a ban on Israeli state aircraft carrying defence material transiting Spanish airspace. The package also bans importing, advertising and marketing products originating from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The Council of Ministers formally approved the measure as Real Decreto-ley 10/2025 on 23 September 2025; it was published in the BOE on 24 September 2025 (BOE-A-2025-18831) and validated by Congress on 8 October 2025 (178–169). Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business separately disclosed that 219 defence-material export/import licences to Israel had been denied since October 2023, against a bilateral trade backdrop of roughly €50M in Spanish arms exports to Israel (Jan 2023–Jun 2024) and at least €54.4M in Spanish imports of Israeli arms/munitions (Oct 2023–May 2025, DataComex code 93).

Turkish port authorities began requiring shipping agents to certify, from 21 August 2025, that vessels calling at Turkish ports have no Israeli ownership or agency ties and carry no military or hazardous cargo destined for Israel; Israeli-flagged or Israeli-linked ships were barred from Turkish ports outright, and Turkish-flagged vessels were barred from calling at Israeli ports. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed and formalised the measures — alongside a parallel closure of Turkish airspace to Israeli government/military flights — in an extraordinary session of the Grand National Assembly (TBMM) on 29 August 2025, stating Türkiye had "completely cut off trade with Israel." The measure operationalises and tightens enforcement of Türkiye's broader Israel trade suspension (in place since May 2024) by closing the maritime transshipment channel that had allowed indirect trade to continue.

On 31 July 2025 Israel's Investment and Industrial and Economic Development Authority (part of the Ministry of Economy and Industry) published Director General's Order 4.82, opening an ILS ~300 million (~$81m) grant channel to help industrial facilities convert fuel/electricity consumption systems and improve energy efficiency, in order to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Support covers up to 40% of qualifying investment (50% for small applicants), with a bonus for projects that also handle regulated refrigerants during equipment scrapping. The application window closed 15 September 2025.

On 31 July 2025 the Slovenian government (under PM Robert Golob) adopted a decision, based on Article 28 of the Regulation on Approvals for Production and Permits for Trade in Military Weapons and Equipment, banning the export and transit of military weapons and equipment from or through Slovenia to Israel, and the import of such equipment from Israel, citing serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza. The ban covers items on the EU Common Military List and carves out an exception for equipment necessary for Slovenia's own security and resilience. Slovenia was the first EU/European country to enact such a measure. On 11 June 2026 the successor government under PM Janez Janša revoked the ban, arguing weapons-export conditions are already covered by the Defence Act and that no transit permits to/from Israel had been issued since 2023, and citing a wish to restore normal diplomatic channels with Israel.