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

President Trump signed Executive Order "Ending Certain Tariff Actions" on 20 February 2026 (Federal Register doc 2026-03832, published 25 February 2026), terminating the additional ad-valorem duties imposed under nine prior IEEPA-based executive orders. The order followed within hours of the US Supreme Court's 6-3 decision the same day in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, 607 U.S. ___ (2026), holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs and vacating the Trump 2.0 IEEPA tariff regime. The EO directs CBP to cease collection "as soon as practicable"; CSMS guidance set the collection-end date at 12:00 a.m. eastern on 24 February 2026. The order explicitly preserves all underlying national-emergency declarations and all non-IEEPA trade actions — Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, Section 301 of the Trade Act, Section 122 of the Trade Act, and Section 201 — so the Section 232 cascade and the paired Section 122 10% temporary surcharge (effective 24 Feb 2026) remain in force. This is the first SCOTUS-driven repeal of a presidential tariff regime in the modern era and recalibrates the entire post-2024 US tariff architecture by removing IEEPA as a legal pillar.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/4 ("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 marble, travertine, alabaster and other worked building/monumental stone (GTİP 6802.21 and 6802.91.00.00.19). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 700/tonne require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert lists China, Greece and Iran as the principally affected exporting countries.

The FCC adopted a Report and Order (FCC 25-49) on 7 August 2025 — the first comprehensive overhaul of submarine cable landing license rules since 2001 — effective 26 November 2025. The order prohibits Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreements that would give entities from designated foreign adversary countries (China including Hong Kong and Macau, Cuba, Iran, DPRK, Russia, and Venezuela) control over Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) on US cable landings, and mandates new annual reporting plus certification/disclosure requirements covering ownership, cybersecurity and physical security plans, and FCC Covered List compliance. The order operationalises the FCC's bifurcated policy package: accelerating legitimate commercial cable buildout while hardening national-security review for foreign-adversary-connected infrastructure.

FinCEN issued a final rule under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (31 U.S.C. § 5318A) prohibiting US covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, Iraq-based Al-Huda Bank, a foreign financial institution found to be of primary money-laundering concern. Treasury determined that Al-Huda Bank exploited its access to US dollars to support designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and IRGC-Quds Force, as well as Iran-aligned Iraqi militias Kata'ib Hizballah and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq. The rule also imposes a special-due-diligence requirement on US covered institutions to guard against indirect access via foreign correspondent accounts. Published in the Federal Register on July 3, 2024; effective August 2, 2024.

OFAC adopted a final rule (FR Doc 2023-08870) correcting a typographical error in the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR § 560.528, "insure" → "ensure") and two cross-reference errors in the Western Balkans Stabilization Regulations (31 CFR §§ 588.307 and 588.405). Most substantively, the rule properly incorporates the nongovernmental organizations general license (GL 1) into the WBSR at § 588.512 — that GL was originally issued as a standalone web action on 21 December 2022 but failed to codify due to an error in the amendatory instructions. No new prohibitions or designations are created; the rule formalises existing authorisations and corrects drafting errors.

The US Department of Defense published a final rule (DFARS Case 2020-D007) in the Federal Register on 25 August 2022, effective the same day, amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to implement section 849 of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The rule prohibits DoD's acquisition of tantalum metals and alloys melted or produced in North Korea, China, Russia or Iran, and of any end item manufactured in one of those countries that contains such tantalum.

OFAC amended the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 544) to add a note explaining that SDN List entries for persons designated for North Korea-related WMD activities will carry a "Secondary sanctions risk:" prefix, alerting counterparties to the elevated secondary-sanctions exposure under applicable authority. In the same rulemaking, OFAC amended the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 560) to broaden the general licence for official UN business — extending it to UN Specialized Agencies, Programmes, Funds, and Related Organizations — and to rename "World Bank" to "World Bank Group" throughout. A technical correction was also included. Neither change expands the substantive prohibitions; both are administrative clarifications improving SDN transparency and GL precision.