Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

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).

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement on 2025-12-22 providing JPY 135 billion (approx. USD 865 million) to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), co-financed alongside private financial institutions for a total facility of JPY 250 billion. The loan finances part of the funds MOL used to acquire LBC Tank Terminals Group Holding Netherlands Coöperatief U.A., a chemical tank-terminal operator with core operations in Europe and the US; the acquisition itself completed in June 2025.

The European Commission cleared a EUR 172 million Dutch state-aid measure to fund preparatory activities of Nucleaire Energie Organisatie Nederland B.V. ("NEO NL"), the state-owned holding company the Dutch cabinet is establishing to develop two new nuclear power plants. The financing — provided as a state loan/capital contribution against a cabinet-requested ceiling of up to EUR 222 million for 2026-27 — covers technology-vendor selection, licensing work and other pre-construction preparation, and does not itself cover plant construction or operation. The Commission found the measure compatible with EU state-aid rules as contributing to decarbonisation of the Dutch energy mix.

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.

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.

The European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules, a EUR 1.2 billion Dutch scheme known as NIKI (Nationale Investeringsregeling Klimaatprojecten Industrie) on 20 May 2025. Administered by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the scheme funds direct grants to industrial enterprises (manufacturing, waste management and remediation activities, SBI code C and E-37/38.2) that cut lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions, and is the first EU State aid measure to run direct decarbonisation projects and resource-efficiency/circularity projects in the same competitive bidding process. Aid is awarded competitively by lowest euros requested per tonne of CO2-equivalent abated; each project must achieve a minimum lifecycle GHG reduction of 100,000 tonnes and request at least EUR 30 million in aid. The scheme runs through 31 December 2029.

Hydrom launched Round 3 of Oman's green hydrogen land auction on 30 April 2025, offering a flexible Duqm land block of up to 300 km² with a minimum project footprint of 100 km². A 9-month preparation window runs from the RFQ release (30 April 2025) to proposal submission in early 2026, with project awards to follow. Developers may explore selling surplus renewable electricity to the national grid, and will access the planned 2,000-km hydrogen pipeline and a liquid hydrogen export corridor linking Duqm to the Netherlands and Germany. Round 3 is an implementing-auction instrument within the umbrella 2024 Oman Green Hydrogen Strategy; the two prior rounds have already secured USD 49 bn in investment commitments and more than 1 Mtpa of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030 from more than 30 GW of dedicated renewables.

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 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.

The Netherlands extended its national export-control measure under the Besluit Strategische Goederen to a new equipment class: specific optical and e-beam measuring and inspection systems used in advanced semiconductor production (capable of detecting defects at 21 nm and below). A national licence issued by the Dutch government (CDIU / BUZA / EZ joint approval) is now required for exports to all destinations outside the EU. The measure was announced by Minister Klever in the Government Gazette on 15 January 2025 and took effect 1 April 2025, directly affecting ASML's Hermes Microvision (HMI) subsidiary and ASM International (ASMI).

BIS published a Code of Federal Regulations technical correction restoring two entries to supplement no. 4 to 15 CFR part 744 (the Entity List) that had been inadvertently omitted from the most recent annual CFR revision. The restored entries are Kapil Raj Arora under the destination of the Netherlands and Orion Eleven Pvt. Ltd. under the destination of Pakistan. Both entries carry the previously imposed license requirement for all items subject to the EAR with a presumption of denial. The rule is editorial and does not impose new substantive restrictions.

On 6 September 2024 the Dutch government announced an expansion of its national export-control measure on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, bringing two additional ASML DUV immersion lithography systems — TWINSCAN NXT:1970i and NXT:1980i — under a Dutch national authorisation requirement for shipments to destinations outside the EU. The measure took effect on 7 September 2024 via a ministerial regulation published in Staatscourant 2024 no. 29008. Until this point those two older system variants were controlled extraterritorially through the US Foreign Direct Product Rule; the change transfers licensing authority from BIS to the Dutch government and aligns the Dutch national list more tightly with the perimeter set by the June-2023 measure on NXT:2000i+. ASML characterised the update as a "technical change" with no expected impact on its 2024 financials or longer-term outlook.

Oman published its national Green Hydrogen Strategy in May 2024 (with an updated December 2024 release), formalising statutory production targets of 1.0-1.5 Mtpa green hydrogen by 2030, 3.25-3.75 Mtpa by 2040, and 7.5-8.5 Mtpa by 2050. Implementation is centralised in Hydrom (Hydrogen Development Oman), the wholly state-owned subsidiary of Energy Development Oman established in 2022 as the singular allocation authority for green- hydrogen master-planning, land tendering and developer concessions. Approximately 50,000 km² of state land in Duqm, Dhofar and Al Jazir is earmarked under the regime, sufficient to host ~95-100 GW of electrolyser capacity and ~175-185 GW of renewable build-out by 2050. The strategy underpins the ~USD 11bn Round-2 Dhofar awards announced April 2024 and positions Oman as a structural offtake supplier to EU/JP/KR hydrogen importers under the EU Renewable Energy Directive III non-bio renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO) framework and the Japan Hydrogen Society Promotion Act CfD scheme.

The Dutch Council of Ministers on 28 March 2024 approved Project Beethoven, a EUR 2.51 billion public-investment package for the Brainport-Eindhoven semiconductor ecosystem. The package combines EUR 1.28 billion from the Nationaal Groeifonds, EUR 450 million in additional central- government education/talent spending, and EUR 780 million in regional co-funding from the Province of Noord-Brabant and the Municipality of Eindhoven. Investment pillars cover infrastructure (mobility, road capacity on A2/A58/A67, energy-grid reinforcement), a national semiconductor-talent plan targeting 2,000 master's-programme graduates per year by 2030, 16,000+ new housing units in the Brainport region, and quality-of-life improvements. The Government stated it expects these measures to lead ASML to continue to invest and maintain its statutory and tax domicile in the Netherlands.

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 42 entities under 44 entries to the Entity List, effective December 7, 2023. The majority — 28 entities in Russia — are sanctioned for procuring or contracting on behalf of Russia's defense sector, including avionics, military-grade drones, and military electronics. Fourteen additional entities across Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, China, and the UAE were added for operating diversion and transshipment networks that supply U.S.-origin items to Russian military end-users. All listed entities face a license requirement for all EAR-controlled items with a presumption of denial.

The Dutch government announced on 30 June 2023 a new national export-licensing requirement covering specific advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, most prominently ASML's TWINSCAN NXT:2000i and subsequent DUV immersion lithography systems used at ≤14/16nm logic, advanced DRAM, and advanced 3D NAND production. Effective from 1 September 2023 via the national Strategic Goods Decree, the rule completes the trilateral US-Japan-Netherlands chip-equipment perimeter initiated by the January 2023 trilateral agreement. Although nominally country-neutral, the BIS Foreign Direct Product Rule means licences for shipments to "countries of concern" — read: China — face a presumption of denial. Subsequent guidance in 2024 expanded coverage to additional TWINSCAN NXT:1970Ci and 1980Di system variants.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 10 entities under 13 destination entries to the Entity List, effective February 24, 2023. The additions span three groups: (1) five Chinese entities operating in the commercial satellite and dual-use space sector — most notably Spacety Co., Ltd. and China HEAD Aerospace Technology Co., both suspected of supplying satellite imagery and space technology in support of the Russian military in Ukraine; (2) two Canadian procurement intermediaries (CPUNTO Inc. and Electronic Network Inc.) facilitating illicit acquisition of US-origin controlled items; and (3) three Russian defense-industrial procurement companies supplying the Russian military. All listed entities are subject to a license requirement for all EAR-subject items with a policy of denial, except EAR99 food and medicine which receive case-by-case review.

The Wet veiligheidstoets investeringen, fusies en overnames ("Vifo Act") is the Netherlands' cross-sector statutory FDI screening regime. Adopted by the States-General on 18 May 2022 (Stb. 2022, 215) and entered into force on 1 June 2023 together with two implementing decrees (Stb. 2023, 173 — main implementing decree; Stb. 2023, 172 — decree defining the scope of "sensitive technology"), the Act establishes mandatory pre-closing notification and a security review by the Bureau Toetsing Investeringen (BTI, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate) for transactions affecting (i) "vital providers" in critical infrastructure sectors — energy, transport, telecoms, port operators, banking infrastructure — and (ii) Dutch undertakings active in "sensitive technology", defined to include EU Reg 2021/821 Annex I dual-use items, military goods, and additional national-security technologies. The regime applies retrospectively to transactions completed after 8 September 2020. It is the foundational instrument under which the Dutch national export-control measures on ASML DUV immersion lithography (filed: 2023-06-30 and 2024-09-07) operate, and the Dutch peer of US CFIUS, EU Regulation 2019/452, the German AWG §§55-62, the French Décret 2014-479 / R. 151-1 et seq., and the UK NSI Act 2021.