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

On June 2, 2026, USTR published final actionability findings in 60 parallel Section 301(b) investigations — the largest simultaneous Section 301 action in US history — determining that all 60 economies maintain unreasonable acts, policies, or practices by failing to impose or effectively enforce a prohibition on imports produced with forced labor. USTR proposed two additional duty rates: 10% on the 14 economies with partial forced-labor regimes (Canada, Ecuador, EU, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Taiwan, UK) and 12.5% on the remaining 46 economies. Tariff rates remain proposed pending a July 7, 2026 public hearing and subsequent finalization; the actionability determination is final.

Peru's Mining Council (Consejo de Minería) issued Resolution No. 236-2026-MINEM/CM on 19 March 2026, declaring null and void Directoral Resolution No. 0692-2025-MINEM/DGM of 13 October 2025, which had authorised Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SPCC, NYSE: SCCO; subsidiary of Grupo México) to begin exploitation activities at the Tía María copper project in Islay province, Arequipa. The council found the original DGM authorisation lacked adequate legal motivation and failed to address two technical observations relating to waste-dump infrastructure design and construction-sequencing plans, as required under the Regulation of Mining Procedures and the consolidated text of the Administrative Procedures Act (Law 27444). The resolution returned the file to the General Directorate of Mining (DGM) for technical re-evaluation, without terminating the project's administrative procedure; MINEM subsequently re-authorised the project's first-stage La Tapada open-pit operations on approximately 20 April 2026 after a revised technical assessment.

Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) issued Decreto Supremo N° 002-2026-EM on 5 March 2026, modifying Decreto Supremo N° 017-2018-EM (Reglamento del Mecanismo de Racionamiento de Gas Natural) to establish a binding six-tier priority order for natural gas allocation whenever the rationing mechanism is formally activated during declared energy emergencies. Tiers prioritise residential and regulated commercial consumers at the top, followed by CNG vehicle/public-transport stations, regulated industrial consumers by volume threshold, independent consumers with firm contracts, and interruptible-contract holders at the base. The decree imposes binding obligations on natural-gas producers, pipeline-transport concessionaires, distribution concessionaires, and LNG-plant operators to optimise production and supply during declared emergencies, with Osinergmin empowered to grant temporary regulatory exemptions. The decree was triggered by the 2 March 2026 Megantini district rupture of Transportadora de Gas del Perú's (TGP) main Camisea pipeline, which reduced supply to approximately 9–10% of normal capacity and forced Cálidda (Lima/Callao distributor) to cut gas to 850 industrial users and all thermal power plants.

On 4 February 2026, in Washington, DC, Peru and the United States signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on critical-mineral supply chains, covering exploration, extraction, processing, and downstream investment. The MoU was one of eleven founding-member bilateral instruments signed simultaneously at the inaugural FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and USTR Jamieson Greer. Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer (~12% of mined supply), a top-two silver and zinc producer, the leading Latin American gold producer, and a globally significant source of tin, molybdenum, and lead — making it the most strategically important Latin American signatory of the FORGE founding cohort alongside Argentina.

Peru's Decreto Legislativo N° 1695 (published El Peruano 20 January 2026) amends the Código Penal (Legislative Decree N° 635) to substantially escalate criminal penalties for illegal mining and illegal-origin mineral trafficking. Art 307-A (illegal mining) now carries 5–8 years imprisonment; Art 307-E (trafficking chemical precursors and machinery) and a new Art 307-F (trafficking illegal-origin mineral resources — covering transport, storage, export- loading, and commercialisation) each carry 6–9 years plus 100–600 días-multa. A new Art 307-G adds an inhabilitación penalty barring offenders from mining concessions and mineral commercialisation. The decree also amends Ley N° 30077 (Ley contra el Crimen Organizado) to formally classify illegal mining offences (Arts 307-A through 307-F) as organised crime, unlocking FECOR prosecutorial tools including controlled-delivery operations, FIU cooperation, money-laundering enhancements, and civil asset forfeiture.

On 26 December 2025 the Peruvian executive promulgated and published in El Peruano Ley N° 32537, modifying Decreto Legislativo 1293 to extend the Registro Integral de Formalización Minera (REINFO) — Peru's artisanal-and-small-scale mining formalisation registry — through 31 December 2026, or until the new MAPE Law and its regulations enter into force, whichever occurs first. The statute is the parent instrument above DS 009-2025-EM (May 2025) and pushes the formalisation regime — which previously had a 30 June 2025 sunset under Ley 32213 — out by another 18 months. It also (i) orders a national MAPE census run by INEI, MINEM and INGEMMET (to begin within six months and conclude within twelve), (ii) requires REINFO registrants to declare real operational coordinates within 120 days via the Ventanilla Única de Formalización Minera, (iii) compels regional governments to transfer their formalisation paper and digital archives to MINEM within 60 days, and (iv) directs SUNAFIL to issue payroll-compliance verification rules for REINFO holders within 60 days. The law affects ~80,000+ artisanal and small-scale miners and is the statutory ceiling under which Peru's gold and copper-concentrate export chain operates.

On 11 June 2025 the Peruvian government published Decreto Supremo N° 003-2025-IN in El Peruano, approving the Estrategia Nacional para la Reducción e Interdicción de la Minería Ilegal en el Perú al 2030. Issued by the Ministerio del Interior (MININTER) and coordinating 17 public institutions, the strategy establishes six specific objectives to dismantle the full criminal chain of illegal mining — from unauthorised extraction through commercialisation of illegally-sourced minerals — across four critical intervention phases. It is institutionally distinct from the parallel MINEM-administered REINFO formalisation track (DS 009-2025-EM + Ley 32537), targeting unregistered illegal operations via PNP, Fiscalía, SUNAT, MINAM, and regional governments, with PCM as the strategy-steering body and a 2030 horizon.

Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines published Decreto Supremo N° 009-2025-EM in El Peruano on 18 May 2025, approving the implementing regulation for Law 32213 (Dec 2024). The decree operationalises the extension of the REINFO mining-formalisation registry deadline through 30 June 2025 (extendable +6 months), reaffirms MINEM as the rector authority over the small-scale and artisanal mining (MAPE) formalisation process, and creates SIPMMA — the Sistema Interoperable de Pequeña Minería y Minería Artesanal — as a state interoperable system for operational traceability of minerals, explosives, chemical inputs and controlled products. A controversial Article 10 had also opened a "REINFO hereditario" path allowing succession transfer of registry inscriptions; that provision was derogated two weeks later by DS 010-2025-EM (1 Jun 2025) under domestic and international anti-illegal-mining pressure.

Regulation (EU) 2023/2842, published in the Official Journal on 20 December 2023, is the first comprehensive recast of the EU fisheries control framework since Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, and amends the IUU Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 alongside five sectoral regulations (1967/2006, 2016/1139, 2017/2403, 2019/473). Effective in phases from 10 January 2026, it mandates the CATCH electronic catch-certification IT system for ALL imports of wild-capture marine fishery products into the EU single market, replacing legacy paper catch certificates. It also introduces Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) with CCTV on high-risk EU vessels ≥18 m, full electronic reporting for all vessels by 2028, and extended Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) coverage down to vessels ≥12 m. The regulation tightens the carding regime (red/yellow cards for non-cooperating flag states under the amended IUU Regulation) and requires digital traceability end-to-end through the supply chain, raising compliance cost and market-access barriers for all non-EU seafood exporters.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, adopted 31 May 2023 and in force 29 June 2023, requires all EU operators and traders placing seven in-scope commodities and their derived products on the EU market — or exporting them from the EU — to file due-diligence statements certifying that goods are deforestation-free (no land cleared after 31 December 2020) and produced in compliance with the relevant legislation of the country of origin. A Commission-administered risk-classification system assigns producer countries to low, standard, or high-risk tiers with differentiated due-diligence burdens. Application was subsequently postponed twice: to 30 December 2026 for large operators (Reg (EU) 2024/3234 and Reg (EU) 2025/2650).

On 26 November 2013 a Chinese consortium led by MMG Limited (HKG:1208, the listed mining arm of China MinMetals Corporation) agreed to acquire the Las Bambas copper project in Apurímac, Peru from Glencore PLC for USD 5.85 billion. The sale was completed on 7 April 2014. MMG holds 62.5% of the consortium; CITIC Metal holds 15%; Guoxin International holds 22.5%. All three are Chinese state-linked entities. Las Bambas is one of the world's largest copper deposits. Since commencing production in 2016 it has produced approximately 300,000-400,000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year, representing roughly 1-1.5% of global mined copper supply and approximately 10% of Peru's total copper exports. Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer (~10% global supply), so Las Bambas is a material share of the Andean copper complex. The acquisition was MOFCOM-directed: as a condition of approving the Glencore-Xstrata merger in 2013, China's Ministry of Commerce required Glencore to divest Las Bambas to a Chinese buyer within 12 months of merger completion. This is the definitive case of Chinese antitrust authority being used as an instrument of resource-acquisition policy — MOFCOM leveraged deal approval to transfer a world-class copper asset to Chinese state-linked ownership. Las Bambas has been the source of persistent community conflicts in Apurímac Province, with road blockades in 2022-2023 halting production for extended periods and bringing the Peru government into direct negotiation with MMG and local communities. China's policy-bank financing (CDB-backed) for the acquisition underpins the ongoing operation despite these disruptions.