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

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on April 28, 2026 that China will extend zero-tariff treatment (preferential tariff rate of 0%) to all 53 African countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations, effective May 1, 2026 through April 30, 2028. The measure adds 20 African non-LDC nations to the existing zero-tariff scheme already covering 33 African LDCs since December 2024, making China the first major economy to grant full-coverage zero-tariff access to all African diplomatic partners. Coverage extends to all tariff lines except out-of-quota products (where only in-quota rates move to zero); eSwatini is excluded as it maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan rather than the PRC.

On 12 March 2026 Senegal's Primature held a press conference releasing mid-term findings of the National Commission for the Re-evaluation and Renegotiation of Petroleum, Gas, and Mining Contracts, created in August 2024 under Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko's reform programme. The Commission identified a 1,075.9 billion FCFA shortfall in the mining sector — concentrated in unpaid taxes/royalties and unauthorised tax exemptions at ICS (Industries Chimiques du Sénégal) — and announced the termination of four offshore oil-exploration blocks (Djifer Offshore, Kayar Offshore, Saint-Louis Offshore, Rufisque Offshore). Renegotiation of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas project, operated by BP with Kosmos Energy and Woodside as partners on the Senegal-Mauritania maritime border, is under active examination; the Primature projects 900 bn FCFA in incremental fiscal revenue 2026-2040 from the contract revision programme. This is Senegal's first major instance of retroactive resource-contract review under the Sonko-Faye government and establishes the legal-political baseline for subsequent contract renegotiations across the 27 mining contracts and remaining hydrocarbon licences under Commission review.

Senegal adopted a new Mining Code under President Bassirou Diomaye Faye's sovereignty-reform mandate, replacing the 2016 framework. The code strengthens the state's free-carried interest and participating-interest rights in mining operations, imposes stricter local-content requirements (processing, employment, procurement), and introduces enhanced royalty and revenue-capture provisions aligned with the WAEMU 2023 regional mining regulation. Community development plan obligations are also reinforced, and the code provides the legal foundation for the concurrent licence-revocation process overseen by the March 2026 National Commission review of 71 permits.

Loi n° 2025-16 du 27 septembre 2025 portant Code des Investissements, published in Journal Officiel du Sénégal n° 7853 du 2 octobre 2025, is the first major horizontal recodification of Senegal's investment framework in 21 years, fully repealing and replacing the Loi n° 2004-06 du 6 février 2004 portant Code des Investissements. Enacted under the Faye-Sonko administration as part of the September 2025 modernisation package (companion to the parallel General Tax Code recodification), the law introduces a digital single-window with a 10-business-day processing guarantee, territorial fiscal and customs stability regimes differentiated by region (3 years for Dakar/Thiès, 5 years for other regions), expanded eligible-sector coverage, and statutory local-content integration mandates to strengthen SME participation. Existing investor protections — national treatment, free capital transfer, and nationalisation/expropriation guarantees — are maintained and modernised. The law structurally aligns the investment framework with Vision Sénégal 2050 sustainable-development requirements.

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.

On 16 June 2023, the Council of Ministers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) adopted Règlement N°02/2023/CM/UEMOA establishing a Community Mining Code, the first regional harmonisation of mining law across the 8-nation bloc in over 20 years (repealing Règlement N°18/2003/CM/UEMOA). The code harmonises licensing tracks (reconnaissance → exploration → mining), royalty and tax standards, rehabilitation and closure fund obligations, and community-contribution requirements across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Member states are required to transpose the code into national law within a prescribed conformity period; the Commission has developed three draft implementing regulations covering permit management, rehabilitation fund procedures, and applicable rights/royalties/taxes.

Senegal's National Assembly adopted Loi n° 2019-04 on 24 January 2019 and President Macky Sall promulgated it on 1 February 2019, establishing the foundational legal framework for maximising Senegalese participation across the entire hydrocarbon value chain — from exploration through decommissioning. The law creates three activity-classification regimes (exclusif, mixte, non-exclusif), mandates priority employment of Senegalese workers, and creates two implementing bodies: the Comité National de Suivi du Contenu Local (CNSCL, via Décret 2020-2046) and the Fonds d'appui au développement du contenu local (FADCL, via Décret 2020-2048). It underpins all petroleum contracts under which Petrosen, Woodside (Sangomar, first oil June 2024), bp/Kosmos (GTA Tortue Ahmeyim, first gas December 2024), and future Yakaar-Teranga development licenses operate.