Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 844, de 30 de dezembro de 2025, amending Annexes IV and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to modify import tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and duties on 15 products, effective 1 January 2026. The resolution establishes new duty-free (0%) TRQs for 11 product categories — including nutritional supplements (30 metric tons/year), animal-feed additives, contact lenses (a combined 40.375 million units/year across two NCM headings), electrical cable connectors, and glass ampoules — while removing existing duty-free quota treatment for four products (a thermal-control polyethylene film, a rubber sanitary/contraceptive item under NCM 4014.10.00, an anhydrous sodium-compound chemical under NCM 2836.20.10, and one further excluded product), whose duty reverts from 0% to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) rate. The measure is a routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance action rather than a trade-remedy or policy-driven restriction.

Pakistan's Directorate General of Customs Valuation (Karachi), acting under the Federal Board of Revenue, issued Valuation Ruling No. 2024/2025 on 24 November 2025 (C.No. Misc/54/2021-III/1115), superseding Valuation Ruling No. 1822/2023 and setting fresh minimum customs values (C&F, US$/kg) for latex rubber threads across four count-range bands, differentiated by origin: China at US$2.69-3.53/kg and Malaysia/Thailand at US$2.85-3.66/kg, rising with thread count (30-44, 45-55, 56-63, 64-90 counts). The Directorate rationalized the values downward at stakeholders' request, citing a documented downward trend in prevailing international prices; the ruling functions as an enforceable minimum-value floor under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969, applied when declared invoice values fall below the benchmark.

Pakistan's Directorate General of Customs Valuation (Karachi), acting under the Federal Board of Revenue, issued Valuation Ruling No. 2023/2025 on 5 November 2025 (C.No. Misc/12/2025-I/1073), fixing new minimum customs values under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969 for imported Zirconium Silicate (PCT 2530.9020): US$2.084/kg (C&F) for China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam-origin shipments, and US$2.200/kg for Europe/USA-origin shipments. The ruling followed a finding that declared import values — as low as US$0.35/kg from China against a China/Europe international benchmark of US$1.70-1.82/kg for the constituent raw material (Zircon Sand) — were substantially below prevailing international market prices, and names China as the "global benchmark" origin used to set the floor.

On 4 November 2025, Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (EXIM Bank), a Malaysian government-owned export credit agency, extended a USD 70 million Islamic Overseas Investment Financing facility to Berjaya Okinawa Investment (S) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Berjaya Land Berhad, to support construction of the Four Seasons Resort & Private Residences Okinawa in Japan. The facility is state-linked outbound-investment support extending EXIM Bank's decade-long financing relationship with the Berjaya Group and is logged by Global Trade Alert as a "certainly harmful" financial assistance intervention supporting a Malaysian firm's expansion abroad.

Following an anti-dumping investigation initiated 6 February 2025 (petition by domestic producer CSC Steel Sdn Bhd) and an affirmative preliminary determination imposing provisional duties from 5 July 2025, Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) issued an affirmative final determination and imposed DEFINITIVE anti-dumping duties on imports of galvanised iron/steel coils and sheets (flat-rolled products of alloy or non-alloy steel, plated or coated with zinc via the hot-dip process) originating in or exported from China, South Korea and Vietnam. The measure runs for five years, 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2030, and is enforced by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department under the Countervailing and Anti-Dumping Duties Act 1993 and its 1994 Regulations. Definitive duty rates: China 5.60%-26.80%; South Korea 2.21%-31.47%; Vietnam -14.17% (de minimis/negative for some exporters) to 57.90%.

On 26 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, on the margins of the ASEAN Summit, President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim signed two complementary instruments structuring the US-Malaysia economic relationship: (i) a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperation to Diversify Global Critical Minerals Supply Chains and Promote Investments, establishing quarterly working-level meetings on bilateral exploration, extraction, processing, refining, manufacturing, and recycling, plus shared commitments on streamlined permitting and protection from non-market policies; and (ii) a legally-binding Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) covering goods (chemicals, machinery, electrical equipment, metals, vehicles, dairy, horticulture, poultry, pork, rice, fuel ethanol), digital trade, services, and investment. Under the ART, the United States maintains a 19% reciprocal tariff on Malaysian imports (with carve-outs for products receiving 0% under EO 14346) while Malaysia commits to refrain from banning or quota-restricting exports of critical minerals or rare earths to the US, ensure no restrictions on rare-earth magnet sales to US firms, and grant extended operating licenses to US partners. The ART enters into force 60 days after exchange of notifications of completed domestic procedures.

Indonesia's Ministry of Finance, under newly-appointed Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, issued Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 68 of 2025 on 16 October 2025, revising the export duty (bea keluar) schedule for cocoa beans (biji kakao, HS 1801.00.10/1801.00.90). The regulation lowers the price-tiered duty structure — for example the US$2,000–2,750/tonne reference-price bracket drops from 5% to 2.5% — producing an overall schedule that now tops out at 7.5% versus a materially higher ceiling previously. Implementing collection under the revised schedule began 22 October 2025. The same PMK simultaneously raised the export duty on pine resin (getah pinus) to 25%, an unrelated forestry product change bundled into the same instrument.

Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, acting through the Strategic Trade Controller, issued Directive No. 1/2025 on 14 July 2025 invoking Section 12 of the Strategic Trade Act 2010 to declare high-performance US-origin AI chips (GPUs, TPUs, neural processors, AI accelerators meeting the Annex I total-processing-performance and performance-density thresholds) as "unlisted controlled items". With effect from 14 July 2025, any export, transshipment, or transit of those chips through Malaysian territory requires a Strategic Trade Permit, a 30-day prior notification, an export-control classification from the manufacturer, and a re-export licence from the originating country. The directive is the formal Malaysian response to US scrutiny over alleged Nvidia AI-chip flows to China via Malaysian freight forwarders and data-centre operators, and it remains binding even after the US relaxes its own export rules.

Malaysia's Ministry of Finance gazetted the Customs (Prohibition of Imports) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2025, amending the Customs (Prohibition of Imports) Order 2023 (P.U. (A) 117/2023) issued under subsection 31(1) of the Customs Act 1967. The order imposes an absolute prohibition, effective 31 December 2025, on importing dummy buckles, seat-belt alarm stoppers, seat-belt clip extenders, or any other accessory or device designed to be inserted into a seat-belt buckle to disable or bypass the seat-belt safety reminder and render the mechanism inoperative. The ban applies to all countries of origin without exception; Global Trade Alert lists Belgium, China and Czechia as principally affected exporters of the trade-catalogue category covering these parts.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-23 providing up to JPY 3 billion (USD 20.48 million) to TAIYO KOKO MALAYSIA SDN. BHD. (TKMSB), the Malaysian subsidiary of Taiyo Koko Co., Ltd., a Hyogo-based Japanese SME non-ferrous metals smelter. The loan is part of a JPY 9.2 billion syndicated facility co-financed with eight Japanese private banks (SMBC, MUFG, Kyoto Bank, Iyo Bank, Resona Bank, Chugoku Bank, Hiroshima Bank, Fukui Bank) and funds a plant in Pahang State, Malaysia that separates and recovers molybdenum and vanadium from spent desulfurization catalysts collected from petroleum refineries.

Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) and Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (EXIM Bank), both wholly state-owned development finance institutions under the BPMB Group, jointly announced on 2025-05-26 a RM700 million (approximately USD 166 million) financing package for Duta Marine Sdn Bhd, a Bumiputera-owned offshore marine services company. The facility comprises RM555 million from BPMB and USD 37 million in Islamic financing from EXIM Bank, funding the acquisition, conversion, refurbishment and mobilisation of an oil tanker into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel — FSO Permata Dulang — to replace the ageing FSO Puteri Dulang serving Malaysia's Dulang oil field under a 10+5 year charter with Petronas Carigali.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a RM1.5 billion domestic-cushioning financing package for SMEs affected by newly imposed US reciprocal tariffs, unveiled during a special parliamentary sitting on 5 May 2025. The package comprises a RM1 billion increase to the Business Financing Guarantee Scheme (Skim Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan, SJPP) for tariff-exposed SME exporters, plus an additional RM500 million Soft Financing Fund channelled through Malaysia's Development Financial Institutions (DFIs). Matrade also received an additional RM50 million to support market diversification into Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and South America.

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.