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

On 3 June 2026 Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (GECEX/CAMEX) published Resolução nº 907/2026 in the Diário Oficial da União (8 June 2026), applying a definitive anti-dumping duty for up to five years on imports of whole and skimmed milk powder (leite em pó integral e desnatado, não fracionado — NCM 0402.10.10, 0402.10.90, 0402.21.10, 0402.21.20, 0402.29.10, 0402.29.20) originating in Argentina and Uruguay. In the same resolution, GECEX immediately suspended the exigibility of those duties on public-interest grounds, pending the formal opening and conclusion of a public-interest evaluation procedure by Secex — making this a definitive-duty-recognised-but-unenforced measure. The investigation was initiated in December 2024 on petition by the Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Confederation (CNA), with Argentina and Uruguay together supplying 86% of Brazil's powdered-milk imports (754 million litre-equivalents of a 1.02-billion-litre total in Jan–May 2026).

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.

On 1 May 2026 the trade pillar of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (the "Interim Trade Agreement", iTA) entered provisional application between the European Union and the four Mercosur states — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — following its publication in the EU Official Journal on 27 February 2026 alongside the broader EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement (EMPA). The iTA covers goods (eliminating duties on more than 90% of bilateral trade over a transition period including immediate cuts on cars, pharmaceuticals, wine and olive oil), services, government procurement at federal and state level, intellectual property (344 EU geographical indications protected), SPS/TBT disciplines, and a sustainability chapter. Mercosur receives tariff-rate quotas on agri-food exports (beef, poultry, sugar, ethanol, honey). Provisional application proceeds pending full ratification of EMPA by the Council, European Parliament and all EU national parliaments and a pending CJEU opinion; only the trade pillar applies provisionally.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved R$1.05 billion (~USD 179 million) in support for Eldorado Brasil Celulose (J&F group) to build an 86.7km private railway linking its Três Lagoas (MS) pulp mill to a terminal at Aparecida do Taboado (MS), feeding the Rondonópolis-Santos export corridor. R$1 billion is structured as BNDES's subscription of the first infrastructure debentures issued under Brazil's Law 14,801/2024, with a further R$50 million via the conventional Finem credit line. The financing reduces Eldorado's logistics costs and displaces an estimated 50,000 truck trips per year, indirectly reinforcing Brazil's cost advantage over competing pulp exporters such as Uruguay's UPM and Montes del Plata mills.

Uruguay's Poder Ejecutivo promulgated Decreto Nº 329/025 on 23 December 2025, comprehensively overhauling the general investment-promotion framework established under Ley Nº 16.906 (1998) and replacing Decreto 268/020. Administered by COMAP under the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, the decree entered into force on 1 February 2026 with a coexistence transition period through 30 April 2026 and became the sole operative instrument from 1 May 2026. The decree extends project timelines, creates tiered investment categories (including a mega-investment tier providing up to 25-year IRAE exemptions), expands incentives for SMEs, and explicitly calibrates the scoring matrix toward decentralisation, innovation, export capacity, and strategic sectors including data-centers, green hydrogen, sustainable forestry-pulp, agtech, and global business services.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 21 entities and 17 individuals across three procurement networks supplying Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and its subordinate weapons producers. The networks sourced ballistic-missile guidance components (accelerometers, gyroscopes, MEMS) for the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group and Shahid Hemmat Space Group, dual-use radar/missile-guidance electronics routed through Hong Kong and China for Shiraz Electronics Industries, and helicopter parts — including a US-origin helicopter — routed through Germany, Türkiye, Portugal and Uruguay for Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Company (PANHA). The action is Treasury's first nonproliferation-sanctions tranche following the 27 September 2025 UN Security Council "snapback" reimposing pre-JCPOA sanctions on Iran.