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

The 22nd Regulation Amending the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Zweiundzwanzigste Verordnung zur Änderung der Außenwirtschaftsverordnung), promulgated in Bundesgesetzblatt I 2025 Nr. 261 and entering into force on 1 November 2025, updates Germany's national export-control list (Ausfuhrliste, Annex AL to the AWV) to align with the 2024-cycle decisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, and NSG. It is the German national implementation layer that parallels Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2003 — both ingest the same multilateral consensus into the EU+DE dual-use perimeter covering ALD, epitaxial deposition, lithography (EUV pellicles/masks/reticles), SEM and etching equipment, quantum computers, cryogenic components, advanced FPGAs/ICs for AI training, and additive-manufacturing systems. Sets the export-list baseline against which BAFA licence determinations from November 2025 onward are made. Distinct from the parallel AWG Implementing Act (entered into force 2026-02-06) which transposed EU Directive 2024/1226 into German sanctions criminal law.

The German Federal Government adopted the 17th amendment to the Außenwirtschaftsverordnung (AWV, Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance), published 30 April 2021 and entering into force 1 May 2021, aligning Germany's FDI screening regime with EU Regulation 2019/452. The amendment adds 16 further sectors to the sector-specific mandatory-notification regime, on top of the 11 already covered, bringing the total to 27 -- including AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles/drones, semiconductors, quantum technology, satellite systems, cybersecurity, and critical raw materials. Filing thresholds are voting-rights acquisitions of 10% or more by a non-EU/EFTA investor in the newly added sectors, with subsequent review triggers at 20%, 25%, 40%, 50% and 75%.

Germany's Außenwirtschaftsgesetz (AWG, Foreign Trade and Payments Act; BGBl. I 2013 S. 1482 of 6 June 2013, replacing the original 1961 Act) is the foundational parent statute of the modern German economic-statecraft toolkit, providing the legislative authority for (i) export licensing of dual-use goods and technology administered by BAFA under the Außenwirtschaftsverordnung (AWV) implementing regulation — the national complement to EU Dual-Use Recast Regulation 2021/821; (ii) inward FDI screening by BMWK under §§ 55–62 AWG covering non-EU/non-EFTA acquisitions of ≥ 25% of voting rights cross-sectorally and ≥ 10%/20% in 27 sensitive-sector activities including defence, semiconductors, AI, quantum, biotech, space, and critical infrastructure; and (iii) German implementation of EU-level and autonomous trade and sanctions restrictions. As the EU's largest economy and a top-tier dual-use exporter, Germany's AWG-based regime is structurally peer-foundational to JP FEFTA 1949, UK NSI Act 2021, US ECRA 2018, CN Export Control Law 2020, and NL Wet Vifo 2022 in the G7+CN economic- statecraft parent-statute cluster.