Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 91 recent

On 2026-01-26 the US Department of Commerce initiated antidumping (LTFV) and countervailing duty investigations covering van-type trailers and subassemblies thereof from Canada, China, and Mexico, following a petition filed 2025-11-20 by the American Trailer Manufacturers Coalition (Great Dane, Stoughton Trailers, Wabash National). On 2026-06-15 Commerce issued its preliminary affirmative LTFV determination for China, setting a preliminary antidumping duty rate of 130.76% on Chinese van-type trailer imports, effective on publication and triggering CBP duty collection at the border. Companion countervailing-duty and Canada/Mexico proceedings are tracked separately.

On 2026-01-26 the US Department of Commerce initiated countervailing duty (anti-subsidy) investigations covering van-type trailers and subassemblies thereof from Canada, China, and Mexico, companion to the antidumping investigation covering the same product and countries. On 2026-06-05 Commerce published preliminary affirmative CVD determinations: China received an 82.37% subsidy rate for CIMC Baowell Industries/Qingdao CIMC Reefer Trailer and all other exporters, and a 128.78% adverse-inference rate for non-responsive companies; Mexico received rates of 1.90-1.95% for cooperating respondents (Hyundai de Mexico, Utility Trailer Manufacturing de México) and a 62.67% adverse-inference rate for five non-responsive companies. The Canada CVD investigation was terminated on 2026-05-27 after the petitioner withdrew that portion of the petition. Cash deposits at the preliminary rates began on Federal Register publication; final CVD determinations are scheduled for 2026-08-24 (China) and 2026-10-13 (Mexico).

The US Department of Commerce published its final affirmative countervailing-duty (CVD) determination on animal feed-grade L-lysine from China (case C-570-216) on 23 July 2026, the companion subsidy proceeding to the parallel antidumping case (A-570-215) finalized the same day. Commerce found Heilongjiang Wanlirunda Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and Shouguang Golden-land Industry & Trading Co., Ltd. received countervailable subsidies at 82.11%, while Inner Mongolia Eppen Biotech Co., Ltd. and all other Chinese producers/exporters were assigned a 48.21% subsidy rate. The preliminary CVD determination, published 22 January 2026, set the initial cash-deposit rates and suspension of liquidation; the final determination confirmed and aligned the case with the AD final determination for a joint ITC injury vote.

BIS issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) on 21 January 2026 (effective 20 January 2026) easing Export Administration Regulations (EAR) controls on certain civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and related technology. The IFR makes two changes: (i) ECCN 9A012.a.1 commercial UAVs with maximum endurance under one hour can now be exported License-Free (NLR) to most Wassenaar Arrangement Participating States (Country Group A:1, excluding Malta, Russia, Ukraine), versus the prior limitation to UK / Australia / Canada only; and (ii) License Exception STA (Strategic Trade Authorization) is expanded to cover certain MT-controlled UAVs that cannot deliver a 500kg payload to 300+ km — including long-range cargo-delivery drones and ECCN 9A120 agricultural-spraying UAVs — for export to Country Group A:5 partners and allies. The IFR implements the export-promotion directive in §6 of EO 14307 (Unleashing American Drone Dominance, 6 June 2025). Comment period closes 19 February 2026.

The US Department of Commerce issued affirmative preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) determinations on hardwood and decorative plywood from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, finding countervailable government subsidies in all three countries. Preliminary subsidy rates are 81.34% for China, 2.40% to 128.66% for Indonesia (case-by-case, non-cooperating producer PT Mustika Buana Sejahtera at the top of the range), and 4.37% to 26.75% for Vietnam. Commerce published the determinations in the Federal Register on 22 January 2026, triggering CBP collection of cash deposits at these rates pending final determinations. A parallel antidumping (AD) investigation on the same product and countries runs on a separate track (see responds_to) with preliminary AD margins of 187.27% (China), up to 84.94% (Indonesia), and 196.14% (Vietnam) announced 25 February 2026 — AD and CVD duties stack cumulatively.

On 14 January 2026 President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 titled "Adjusting Imports of Processed Critical Minerals and Their Derivative Products into the United States". Unlike the parallel 14 January 2026 semiconductor proclamation and the subsequent April 2026 pharmaceutical proclamation, the PCMDP proclamation does NOT immediately impose tariffs. Instead it directs the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to jointly negotiate bilateral and plurilateral supply agreements with trading partners, with an initial 180-day status report due 13 July 2026. The proclamation reserves residual authority to impose tariffs if negotiations fail or prove ineffective, and explicitly contemplates "price floors" on PCMDP imports as a negotiated instrument.

On 14 January 2026 President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 imposing a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of certain advanced computing chips and their derivative products, effective 12:01 a.m. EST on 15 January 2026. The measure adopts findings of the Section 232 investigation initiated 1 April 2025 (Department of Commerce report transmitted 22 December 2025) into semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and derivative products. Coverage is narrowly drawn to high-performance AI accelerators meeting specified technical parameters (publicly characterised as covering devices in the NVIDIA H200 / AMD MI325X performance tier), with broad use-based exemptions for chips going into US data centres, US R&D, US repairs, and other uses deemed to strengthen domestic supply chains.

The US Department of Commerce issued a countervailing duty (CVD) order on steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Algeria, effective 6 July 2026, imposing a 72.94% subsidy-offset rate on Tosyali Iron Steel Industry Algeria SPA and, by default, all other Algerian producers — a rate based on facts available with adverse inferences after the Algerian government and/or exporters did not fully cooperate with Commerce's subsidy questionnaires. Because USTR determined Algeria is not a "Subsidies Agreement country," the US ITC was not required to make an injury determination, so the CVD order took effect on Commerce's final subsidy determination alone. This is a separate legal track from the parallel antidumping case on the same product (see responds_to) — the AD investigation used a 127.32% margin, the CVD order uses 72.94%, and both stack as cumulative duties on Algerian rebar. Parallel countervailing-duty investigations on Egypt and Vietnam remained at the preliminary stage as of Commerce's 13 January 2026 determinations, with net subsidy rates set at 29.51% (Egypt) and 1.08% (Vietnam); these are provisional cash-deposit rates pending each country's final CVD determination.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that chromium trioxide (chromic acid anhydride, used in chrome plating and surface-finishing) from India and Türkiye is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, following a September 2025 petition by American Chrome & Chemicals. Commerce set a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin and cash-deposit rate of 14.44% for India's Vishnu Chemicals (12.00% cash-deposit rate) and 40.88% for Türkiye's Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları, triggering suspension of liquidation and cash-deposit collection on covered entries from both countries effective 2026-05-22. The investigation period was July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025; final determinations are scheduled for 2026-08-10 (Türkiye) and 2026-10-07 (India, aligned with the companion countervailing-duty case).

On 11 December 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated six shipping companies — registered in the Marshall Islands (4), British Virgin Islands (1), and the United Kingdom (1) — and their six crude-oil tankers as blocked property under Executive Order 13850 for operating in Venezuela's oil sector. The vessels (WHITE CRANE, KIARA M, MONIQUE, LATTAFA, H. CONSTANCE, and TAMIA) had loaded Venezuelan crude in September/October 2025 and allegedly used AIS spoofing and other deceptive shipping practices to evade detection. The same action separately designated four individuals — including two nephews of Cilia Flores (Nicolas Maduro's wife) under the counter-narcotics authority EO 14059, a former PDVSA official under EO 13692, and a Panamanian facilitator under EO 13850 — but the shipping-company/tanker designations are the action's primary trade-control component.

On 2025-12-08 President Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a one-time USD 12 billion Farmer Bridge Payments package for US row-crop and specialty-crop producers, framed as relief for market disruption, elevated input costs, and export losses tied to "years of failed trade and economic policies." Up to USD 11 billion funds the new Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program covering barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower; the remaining USD 1 billion is reserved for specialty crops and sugar. USDA published final per-acre payment rates on 2025-12-31 (e.g. rice USD 132.89/acre, cotton USD 117.35, corn USD 44.36, soybeans USD 30.88, wheat USD 39.35), with payments subject to a USD 900,000 AGI cap and a USD 155,000 per-person/entity payment limit, and disbursement targeted by 2026-02-28.

On 4 December 2025, the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement on Trade and Investment, executed at a White House trilateral ceremony alongside the parallel U.S.-Rwanda framework and witnessed by President Trump, President Tshisekedi (DRC), and President Kagame (Rwanda). The Agreement creates a Strategic Minerals Reserve (SMR) and a Strategic Asset Reserve (SAR) under DRC sovereignty, gives U.S. persons preferential access to SAR assets, and commits DRC and its state-owned enterprises to route at least 30% of their commercialised cobalt volumes through the Sakania-Lobito Corridor within five years. A Joint Steering Committee (JSC) co-chaired by State and DRC's Ministry of Economy holds its inaugural meeting on 4-5 February 2026, designating the initial SAR asset list and launching implementation. The DFC announced a proposed equity investment in a Gécamines-Mercuria copper/cobalt joint venture as the first commercial vehicle under the framework.

On 25 November 2025 the US EPA announced USD 3 billion in new Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) assistance under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), plus reallocation of a further USD 1.1 billion in previously awarded but unspent state funds, bringing total redirected funding to USD 4.1 billion for state lead service line replacement (LSLR) programmes. Global Trade Alert logs the intervention as a public-procurement-localisation measure because DWSRF/IIJA capital- grant assistance carries standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content requirements for the iron, steel, and manufactured construction products (pipe, fittings) used in funded replacement work. States that have not obligated or spent funds awarded since FY2023 must submit an implementation plan before accessing new funding.

On 20 November 2025 the US EPA opened the 9th round of Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) lending — USD 6.5 billion in WIFIA financing plus USD 550 million under the State WIFIA (SWIFIA) program, USD 7.05 billion in total newly available capacity — and simultaneously approved five new WIFIA loans totaling USD 711 million across Fort Worth TX (USD 347m), Pflugerville TX (USD 176m), Joliet IL (USD 87m), Ashland OR (USD 73m) and Wilton Manors FL (USD 28m). Global Trade Alert logs each individual loan as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because WIFIA capital assistance carries a standing American Iron and Steel (AIS) domestic-content requirement for iron, steel and manufactured products used in EPA-financed water infrastructure — a structural condition of the WIFIA statute rather than a provision unique to this announcement.

On 20 November 2025 the Federal Transit Administration announced USD 2,027,948,082 in combined FY2025 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities and FY2025/2026 Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program awards, covering 165 projects across 45 states and the District of Columbia: USD 397.7 million for 62 Bus Facilities projects and USD 1.63 billion for 103 Low-No projects, funding roughly 2,400 replacement buses. Global Trade Alert logs the round as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because both programs carry standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content requirements — buses and manufactured components funded by the awards must be produced with US-made iron, steel, and manufactured products and final-assembled domestically. FTA formalised the full project list via Federal Register notice on 15 January 2026.

On 19 November 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in a coordinated action with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, designated 5 individuals and 7 companies linked to two Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) providers, Media Land and Aeza Group, under Executive Order 13694. Media Land and its subsidiaries (Media Land Technology, Data Center Kirishi, ML Cloud) supplied server infrastructure to ransomware groups including LockBit, BlackSuit and Play. The designations also targeted three companies Aeza Group used to evade its July 2025 OFAC designation and rebrand its infrastructure: Hypercore Ltd. (United Kingdom), Smart Digital Ideas DOO (Serbia), and Datavice MCHJ (Uzbekistan). All designated persons' U.S.-nexus assets are blocked and U.S. persons are prohibited from transacting with them.

DOE's Loan Programs Office concurrently finalized a conditional loan commitment and financial close on a USD 1 billion interest-bearing loan to Constellation Energy Generation, LLC, funded under the newly created Energy Dominance Financing Program, to help restart the 835 MW Crane Clean Energy Center (formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1) on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania. The reactor shut down in 2019 for market reasons (not safety) and was never fully decommissioned; restart is pending NRC licensing approval and is expected to power roughly 800,000 Mid-Atlantic homes, supporting domestic manufacturing and AI-datacenter power demand. A Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council economic-impact study cited in the DOE release estimates ~3,400 direct/indirect jobs, over USD 16 billion in state GDP, and more than USD 3 billion in state/federal tax revenue over the project life.

On 13 November 2025, the United States and the Republic of Korea released a Joint Fact Sheet reaffirming the July 2025 announcement of the Korea Strategic Trade and Investment Deal — the first standalone US-Korea trade-and-investment agreement since the 2012 KORUS FTA. USTR issued the implementing Federal Register notice (90 FR 55964, Notice 2025-21940) on 3 December 2025, effective 4 December 2025, with retroactive HTSUS application to 1 November 2025 for autos and auto parts and to 14 November 2025 for reciprocal-tariff goods, timber, lumber, derivatives, and certain aircraft and aircraft parts. On the US tariff side: (i) the country-specific IEEPA reciprocal tariff on Korean originating goods is set at the higher of the KORUS FTA / MFN rate or 15% (parallel to the Japan and EU framework deals); (ii) the Section 232 tariffs on autos, auto parts, timber, lumber and wood derivatives are reduced to 15% (no incremental duty when the pre-existing KORUS/MFN rate already meets or exceeds 15%); (iii) Korean exports of qualifying goods on the Potential Tariff Adjustments for Aligned Partners (PTAAP) list are exempt from reciprocal tariffs (covering generic pharmaceuticals and unavailable natural resources); (iv) Section 232 pharmaceuticals capped at 15%; semiconductors granted MFN-style "no less favourable" treatment in any future sectoral deal. On the investment side, Korea commits to a USD 350bn package: USD 150bn into US shipbuilding ("Approved Investments") plus USD 200bn into US strategic industries via a separate Strategic Investments MOU, with annual currency-funding cap of USD 20bn. Non-tariff commitments include streamlined US biotech approvals on the Korean side, US meat and cheese market access, fair treatment for US digital services, removal of Korea's 50,000-unit cap on US vehicles meeting FMVSS, and joint WTO support for the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.

On 5 February 2026, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno signed in Washington the United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI), formalising the framework jointly announced on 13 November 2025. The agreement is the first standalone bilateral trade-and-investment instrument concluded by the second Trump administration and the first FTA-style agreement signed under the post-IEEPA reciprocal-tariff architecture (Executive Order 14257, "Liberation Day"). On the US side, the ARTI sets out three tariff schedules: (i) Schedule 2A suspends additional reciprocal tariffs under EO 14257 for specified Argentine-origin goods (covering "unavailable natural resources" and non-patented pharmaceutical inputs); (ii) Schedule 2B grants a zero additional reciprocal tariff for designated Argentine agricultural products under EO 14360; and (iii) caps additional ad-valorem duties on other goods at 10% above MFN rates, inclusive of IEEPA reciprocal tariffs. On the Argentine side, illustrative tariff-rate quotas include duty-free access for 80,000 MT of US beef in calendar year 2026, 1,000 MT for cheese, 870 MT for almonds, 40 MT in-shell + 40 MT shelled for pistachios, 80,000 litres for wine (<2 L bottles), and preferential treatment for 10,000 motor vehicles meeting defined technical parameters. Argentina additionally commits to broader preferential market access on medicines, chemicals, machinery, information-technology products, medical devices, and a wide range of agricultural goods, alongside IP-enforcement upgrades (counterfeit/pirated-goods enforcement, patentability criteria, patent-backlog reduction, geographical indications) and investment-facilitation commitments that align Argentina's regime with US-preferred standards on regulatory cooperation, labour and environment.

On 6 November 2025, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) released the final 2025 List of Critical Minerals under the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. § 1606), expanding the designation from 50 to 60 minerals. The final list adds 10 newly designated commodities — boron, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon, silver, and uranium — based on updated supply-chain disruption modelling, public comment, and interagency recommendations. The list constitutes the foundational statutory anchor for downstream US critical-minerals policy instruments including DPA Title III awards, DOE LPO Title 17 loan eligibility, IRA Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit eligibility, Section 30D FEOC determinations, BIS export-control predicate assessments, Section 232 trade-investigation predicates, and CFIUS critical-technology triggers under 31 CFR § 800.215.

The US Department of Energy announced $625 million in funding to renew its five National Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers for up to five more years, supporting the National Quantum Initiative Act (2018). $125 million is allocated for Fiscal Year 2025, with outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. The renewed centers are hosted at Brookhaven, Fermilab, Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, and Oak Ridge national laboratories. Global Trade Alert logged the announcement as state aid affecting research/computing-machinery trade partners including Australia, Austria and Belgium, though the DOE release itself is domestic-research funding with no explicit foreign-country provisions.

At the APEC Busan summit on 30 October 2025, Presidents Trump and Xi reached the "Economic and Trade Arrangement Between the United States and the People's Republic of China," subsequently implemented on the US side by the executive order "Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates Consistent with the Economic and Trade Arrangement" (issued 4 November 2025; effective 12:01 am EST on 10 November 2025; published in the Federal Register on 7 November 2025 as 90 FR 50729 / 2025-19826) and on the Chinese side by a series of MOFCOM and State Council Tariff Commission announcements (notably MOFCOM 2025 No. 90 of 8–9 November 2025). The arrangement is structurally parallel to the already-filed US-Japan, US-Korea and US-Taiwan framework deals but uniquely material because it freezes the highest-stakes bilateral tariff and export-control confrontation of the post-2024 reset. Core US commitments: (i) reciprocal-tariff "additional ad valorem rate of duty" on PRC-origin goods reduced from a prior 20% IEEPA-fentanyl + 10% IEEPA-reciprocal stack to a 10% rate (i.e., the prior 24% / 34% scheduled escalation is suspended), extended through 10 November 2026; (ii) US BIS suspends the so-called "affiliates rule" expanding entity-list controls to majority-owned subsidiaries of listed Chinese firms; (iii) USTR pauses Section 301 maritime / shipbuilding / logistics countermeasures against Chinese vessels for one year. Core PRC commitments: (i) MOFCOM suspends for one year (until 10 November 2026) the 9 October 2025 extraterritorial rare-earth export-control package — including controls on REE processing equipment, lithium-battery manufacturing equipment, and superhard materials; (ii) PRC suspends retaliatory tariffs on a broad swath of US agricultural products through 31 December 2026; (iii) commitment to purchase ≥25 million metric tonnes of US soybeans annually in 2026-2028 and to resume sorghum and log imports; (iv) suspension of MOFCOM antitrust and "unreliable-entity" probes against named US semiconductor and chip-equipment companies; (v) cooperation on fentanyl precursor enforcement. The arrangement does not repeal underlying authorities (IEEPA tariffs, MOFCOM export-control list, Entity List) — it is a calibrated mutual freeze with a one-year sunset and quarterly review checkpoints.

DOE's Loan Programs Office closed a USD 1.5 billion loan under the Energy Dominance Financing Program to Wabash Valley Resources, LLC to restart and repurpose a coal-gasification plant (idled since 2016) in West Terre Haute, Indiana, converting it into a coal- and petcoke-fed anhydrous ammonia fertilizer facility with 500,000 metric tons/year capacity. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright framed the loan explicitly as reducing US dependence on foreign fertilizer supply by using domestic coal, positioning the plant to supply cost-competitive nitrogen fertilizer to Corn Belt farmers. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a state-loan intervention.

On 26 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, on the margins of the ASEAN Summit, President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim signed two complementary instruments structuring the US-Malaysia economic relationship: (i) a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperation to Diversify Global Critical Minerals Supply Chains and Promote Investments, establishing quarterly working-level meetings on bilateral exploration, extraction, processing, refining, manufacturing, and recycling, plus shared commitments on streamlined permitting and protection from non-market policies; and (ii) a legally-binding Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) covering goods (chemicals, machinery, electrical equipment, metals, vehicles, dairy, horticulture, poultry, pork, rice, fuel ethanol), digital trade, services, and investment. Under the ART, the United States maintains a 19% reciprocal tariff on Malaysian imports (with carve-outs for products receiving 0% under EO 14346) while Malaysia commits to refrain from banning or quota-restricting exports of critical minerals or rare earths to the US, ensure no restrictions on rare-earth magnet sales to US firms, and grant extended operating licenses to US partners. The ART enters into force 60 days after exchange of notifications of completed domestic procedures.

On 26 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, on the margins of the ASEAN Summit, President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperation to Diversify Global Critical Minerals Supply Chains. The MoU covers exploration, extraction, processing and refining, manufacturing, and recycling and recovery of critical minerals and rare earths, with explicit emphasis on domestic value-addition rather than raw-material exports. It establishes a working-level group meeting on a regular (quarterly or as-needed) basis, commits both sides to information-sharing on best practices and technical expertise, and includes a good-faith commitment to "develop authorities to review and deter certain critical-minerals asset sales on national-security grounds" — language that anticipates investment-screening regimes against Chinese-origin acquirers. The MoU is paired with (but separate from) a parallel Framework for a US-Thailand Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, also concluded the same day, under which Thailand commits to eliminate tariff barriers on ~99% of US goods in exchange for the US maintaining its 19% reciprocal-tariff rate on Thai imports.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10984 "Adjusting Imports of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Parts, and Buses Into the United States" on 17 October 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of Class 3 to Class 8 medium- and heavy-duty trucks (large pick-up trucks, moving trucks, cargo trucks, dump trucks, tractors) and on key MHDV parts, and a 10% ad valorem tariff on buses and other vehicles classified in HTSUS heading 8702. Duties take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on 1 November 2025 (Federal Register doc 2025-19639, 90 FR 48451, published 22 October 2025). USMCA-qualifying MHDVs are tariffed only on the value of non-U.S. content; the proclamation also establishes an offset programme for MHDV parts equal to 3.75% of the aggregate value of all MHDVs assembled in the United States from 2025 through 2030, mirroring the Proclamation 10925 light-vehicle offset architecture.

President Trump signed "Adjusting Imports of Timber, Lumber, and their Derivative Products into the United States" on 29 September 2025 invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. § 1862), following a Section 232 investigation initiated 1 March 2025 and a Commerce report transmitted 1 July 2025 that found wood- product imports threaten US national security. The proclamation imposes a 10% ad valorem global tariff on imports of softwood timber and lumber, a 25% global tariff on upholstered wooden furniture, and a 25% global tariff on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, effective 12:01 a.m. EDT 14 October 2025 (Federal Register doc 2025-19482, published 6 October 2025). The upholstered-furniture rate was scheduled to step up to 30% and the cabinet/vanity rate to 50% on 1 January 2026; both step-ups were postponed to 1 January 2027 by a 31 December 2025 amendment proclamation. EU and Japan rates are capped at 15% and UK rates at 10% under bilateral framework deals. This is the first wood/forest-products Section 232 instrument in US history.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Burma-based arms procurement company Royal Shune Lei Company Limited, its three Burmese executives, and two North Korean nationals linked to the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID) for operating an arms-trafficking and revenue-generation network supporting DPRK weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. Royal Shune Lei brokered sales of aerial bomb guidance kits, bombs, and airborne monitoring equipment to Burma's military junta on behalf of KOMID starting in 2022. Designations were made under Executive Order 13687 (DPRK), Executive Order 13551 (DPRK arms trade), and Executive Order 14014 (Burma), blocking all US-jurisdiction property of the six designated parties and barring US persons from transactions with them.

On 24 September 2025 the Federal Railroad Administration published in the Federal Register a withdrawal-and-reissue of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the FY2024-2025 National Railroad Partnership Program / Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program for projects off the Northeast Corridor (FSP-National), making up to USD 5,070,784,989 available for competitive intercity passenger-rail capital awards, including roughly USD 2.4bn de-obligated from the California High-Speed Rail project. Global Trade Alert logs the NOFO as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because FRA capital-assistance grants carry standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content and final-assembly requirements. The reissue also withdrew DEI- and climate-related selection criteria attached to the prior Biden-era version of the NOFO. Applications were due 7 January 2026.

On 17 September 2025 the US Department of Commerce, through BIS, published an interim final rule (90 FR 44767, FR Doc 2025-18015) formally adopting the procedures by which additional automobile parts articles may be added to the scope of the Section 232 25% tariff on automobiles and automobile parts originally imposed by Proclamation 10908 (26 March 2025). The rule, required by the Proclamation to be established within 90 days, codifies four recurring two-week submission windows each year (opening on the first day of January, April, July and October) for inclusion petitions, and obliges the International Trade Administration to issue a public determination memorandum within 60 days of the close of each window. Comments on the interim final rule were due by 3 November 2025; the first inclusions window under the rule opened on 1 April 2026.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two Iranian financial facilitators — Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand — along with more than a dozen Hong Kong- and UAE-based individuals and entities for operating a shadow-banking network that laundered proceeds from Iranian oil sales through front companies and cryptocurrency. The designated addresses account for over $600 million in total inflows, including more than $100 million in cryptocurrency purchases tied to oil sales between 2023 and 2025. Proceeds are alleged to benefit the IRGC-Qods Force and Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). This is the second round of OFAC sanctions targeting Iran's shadow-banking infrastructure since National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2) directed a maximum-pressure campaign on Iran in February 2025.

On 27 May 2026 the US Department of Commerce published preliminary affirmative determinations that high purity dissolving pulp from Brazil and Norway is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, setting preliminary antidumping cash-deposit rates of 7.20% for Brazil and 6.54% for Norway (period of investigation: 1 July 2024 – 30 June 2025). Brazil is also subject to a companion preliminary countervailing duty determination (published 25 March 2026) with rates of 3.67% for Bracell Bahia Specialty Cellulose S.A. and 3.56% for all other Brazilian producers/exporters; Commerce offsets the AD cash-deposit rate by the export-subsidy portion of the CVD rate to avoid double counting. The investigations were initiated 2 September 2025 (notice published 8 September 2025) on a petition by Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. and the United Steelworkers (USW).

President Trump signed Executive Order 14345 on 4 September 2025, implementing the July 2025 US-Japan trade agreement by setting a 15% baseline ad-valorem tariff on nearly all Japanese goods — raising any Column 1 (MFN) duty rate below 15% up to that floor, including on agricultural lines such as cereals, vegetables, and fruits and nuts. The modification applies retroactively to Japanese products entered for consumption on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT, 7 August 2025, and supersedes the higher 24% country-specific reciprocal rate Japan faced under the April 2025 "Liberation Day" schedule. Aerospace products are exempted entirely, autos/auto parts receive the same 15% treatment (down from a separate 25% Section 232 rate), and Japan committed to $550bn in US investment and $8bn/year in additional US agricultural purchases (rice, corn, soybeans, fertilizer, bioethanol) as consideration.

On 2 September 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra'i, a dual Iraqi/St Kitts-and-Nevis citizen, along with his UAE-based shipping manager Babylon and five Marshall Islands-registered shell companies (Tryfo Navigation, Keely Shiptrade, Odiar Management, Panarea Marine, Topsail Shipholding) that hold registered ownership of nine Liberia-flagged tankers (ADENA, LILIANA, CAMILLA, DELFINA, BIANCA, ROBERTA, ALEXANDRA, BELLAGIO, PAOLA). The network blends Iranian crude with Iraqi oil via ship-to-ship transfers in the Arabian Gulf and at Iraqi ports, then markets the blend as solely Iraqi-origin to evade US sanctions, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian regime and al-Samarra'i. The action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13902 and blocks all US property and interests of the designated individual, entities and vessels.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a Russian national (Vitaliy Sergeyevich Andreyev), a Russia-based DPRK economic and trade consular official (Kim Ung Sun), a Chinese front company (Shenyang Geumpungri Network Technology Co., Ltd), and a DPRK trading company subordinate to the DPRK Ministry of People's Armed Forces General Political Bureau (Korea Sinjin Trading Corporation) for facilitating a fraudulent overseas IT-worker scheme that funds North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. The action expands on the prior designation of Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, an entity tied to the DPRK defense ministry that deploys IT worker delegations in Russia and Laos. Treasury said Andreyev and Kim Ung Sun facilitated cryptocurrency-to-cash conversions worth nearly USD 600,000 since December 2024, and that Shenyang Geumpungri's delegation of DPRK IT workers has earned Chinyong and Sinjin over USD 1 million in profits since 2021. Designations were made under Executive Order 13687, blocking all US-jurisdiction property of the four parties and barring US persons from transactions with them.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that unwrought palladium from Russia is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, setting a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin and cash-deposit rate of 132.83% ad valorem for the Russia-wide entity (calculated using facts available with adverse inferences after no respondent cooperated). The investigation covered the January 1 - June 30, 2025 period and was applicable from 2026-02-19. Commerce confirmed the same 132.83% margin in its final determination (2026-05-01), but the US International Trade Commission subsequently found no material injury to the US industry (2026-05-29), so no antidumping duty order was issued and the cash-deposit requirement was discontinued.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that Russian producers and exporters of unwrought palladium receive countervailable subsidies, and set a preliminary all-others countervailing duty cash-deposit rate of 109.10% ad valorem (the same rate applied to the two named respondents, JSC Urals Innovative Technologies and Prioksky Plant of Non-Ferrous Metals, both calculated using facts available with adverse inferences). The investigation was initiated 2025-08-19 covering the 2024 calendar-year period, with the preliminary determination effective 2026-03-11. A companion antidumping duty investigation on the same product ran in parallel; Commerce issued its final affirmative CVD determination on 2026-05-20.

BIS published a Federal Register notice (Docket No. 240814-0099; XRIN 0694-XC132) implementing the first cycle of the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff Inclusions Process established under Proclamations 10895 and 10896 (February 2025). The notice designates 407 Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes as steel or aluminum derivative products, subjecting the steel/aluminum content of those products to the 50% Section 232 tariff effective 12:01 a.m. ET on 18 August 2025; the non-metal content of the same products remains subject to reciprocal and other applicable tariffs. A further 60 HTSUS codes considered for inclusion were excluded from this cycle because they are subject to other ongoing Section 232 or trade-statute investigations.

The US Department of Commerce initiated a countervailing-duty (CVD) investigation of certain freight rail couplers and parts thereof from India (case C-533-941) on 18 August 2025, covering the period of investigation 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025. On 27 February 2026 Commerce issued a preliminary affirmative determination, published in the Federal Register 3 March 2026, finding countervailable subsidy rates of 6.02% for Kharagpur Metal Reforming Industries, 5.47% for Texmaco Rail & Engineering, and 5.90% for all other Indian producers/exporters; Jupiter Wagons and Bhilai Engineering Corporation were assigned a 64.27% adverse-facts-available rate after failing to respond to Commerce's quantity-and-value questionnaire. Commerce aligned the CVD final determination with the companion antidumping final determination. 2024 US imports of the subject product totaled roughly $5.6 million (2.07 million kg).

The US Department of Commerce initiated less-than-fair-value investigations of certain freight rail couplers and parts thereof from the Czech Republic (case A-851-806) and India (case A-533-940) on 12 August 2025, covering the period of investigation 1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025. On 6 May 2026 Commerce issued preliminary affirmative determinations, finding dumping margins of 60.05% for the Czech Republic and 5.32% for India, and imposed provisional antidumping cash-deposit requirements at those rates effective the same date; the final determination was postponed. A parallel preliminary affirmative countervailing-duty determination for India was published 3 March 2026 (case C-533-941). Commerce postponed the original preliminary deadline (initially due 9 March 2026) via a 23 February 2026 notice citing a lapse-in-appropriations tolling of deadlines and an EDIS filing backlog.

On August 12, 2025, OFAC designated four entities — armed group PARECO-FF, Congolese mining cooperative CDMC, and Hong Kong traders East Rise Corporation Ltd. and Star Dragon Corporation Ltd. — pursuant to Executive Order 13413 (amended by EO 13671) for financing armed-group violence and laundering conflict-origin coltan/tantalum from the Rubaya mining area through Rwanda into international markets. The designations freeze US-jurisdictional assets and prohibit US-person dealings with all four entities. Rubaya accounts for approximately 15% of global coltan production, making this the first US action targeting the full armed-group → cooperative → offshore-trader laundering chain for that deposit.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14323, "Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Brazil," on 30 July 2025 (published in the Federal Register on 5 August 2025 as FR doc 2025-14896). Invoking IEEPA and the National Emergencies Act, the order declared a country- specific national emergency citing "policies, practices, and actions" of the Lula government — including the criminal prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, asserted infringement of the free-expression rights of US persons via DSA-style platform-content rules, and retaliatory measures targeting US digital firms — as constituting an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to US national security, foreign policy, and economy. The EO imposed a 40% additional ad valorem duty on Brazilian-origin goods effective for entries on or after 12:01 a.m. EDT on 6 August 2025; stacked on top of the 10% baseline reciprocal rate from EO 14257/14326, the cumulative rate reached 50% for non- exempt goods. Annex I exempted civil aircraft and parts, orange juice, certain machinery, certain metals, and energy/energy products. The EO was amended on 20 November 2025 (effective for entries on or after 13 November 2025) to exempt 238+ HTSUS codes for agricultural products (beef, tropical produce, nuts, coffee, cocoa, cassava derivatives, etc.) following initial Trump-Lula bilateral negotiations on 6 October 2025. The IEEPA-tariff component was terminated by EO of 20 February 2026 ("Ending Certain Tariff Actions") within hours of the SCOTUS 6-3 ruling in *Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump* holding that IEEPA does not authorize the imposition of tariffs.

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.

On 15 July 2025 USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer initiated a Section 301 investigation into six categories of Brazilian "acts, policies, and practices" alleged to be unreasonable or discriminatory and to burden US commerce: (1) digital trade and electronic payment services (specifically the Banco Central do Brasil's operation of the Pix instant-payments system, alleged to disadvantage US payment providers); (2) unfair, preferential tariffs (Brazil's preferential tariff treatment for selected partners that excludes US exports); (3) anti-corruption enforcement (alleged interference with US-linked enforcement matters); (4) intellectual property protection (insufficient enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting); (5) ethanol market access (Brazil's reversal of near-zero ethanol tariffs imposed during the 2017-2024 window); and (6) illegal deforestation (the trade-distorting effect of unenforced environmental rules on Brazilian commodity exports). The Federal Register notice (USTR-2025-0043, FR doc 2025-13498) published on 18 July 2025 set written-comment and hearing-request deadlines for 18 August 2025 and a public hearing for 3 September 2025 at the US International Trade Commission. A determination on whether Brazil's practices are actionable, and what remedies (including retaliatory tariffs, withdrawal of trade concessions, or formal WTO action) USTR will pursue, is statutorily due within 12 months of initiation — i.e. by 15 July 2026.

On 3 July 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a network of UAE- and UK-based companies controlled by Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said that has smuggled Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi crude since at least 2020, plus five additional shadow-fleet vessel owners based in Seychelles, the Marshall Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. The action, taken pursuant to E.O. 13902 (Iran petroleum sector) and E.O. 13224 (counterterrorism), also identifies several tankers as blocked property and marks the eighth round of sanctions under National Security Presidential Memorandum 2's Iran maximum-pressure campaign. Concurrently, the State Department designated six additional entities and four vessels under E.O. 13846.

The US Department of Commerce initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam following a June 2025 petition by the Rebar Trade Action Coalition. On 19 December 2025, Commerce published its preliminary affirmative less-than-fair-value determination for Algeria, setting a 127.32% dumping margin (Tosyali Iron and Steel Industry — Algeria, applied to all other Algerian exporters) and requiring cash deposits at that rate. Parallel LTFV and countervailing-duty investigations on Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam remained pending at the provisional/preliminary stage as of this determination, with Bulgaria and Egypt preliminary determinations later postponed to March 2026 (Egypt/Vietnam preliminary CVD margins of 29.51% and 1.08% respectively were set earlier in the case). The investigation covers rebar in straight-length or coil form (HTS-classified, excluding plain/smooth rounds), imported for use in reinforced-concrete construction. Algeria's period of investigation was April 2024–March 2025.

On 20 June 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated one individual, eight entities, and one vessel pursuant to Executive Order 13382 (WMD proliferators) for procuring and transshipping sensitive machinery to Iran's Rayan Roshd Afzar Company (RRA), a producer of UAV components and aerospace software for the IRGC. The vessel SHUN KAI XING, owned by Hong Kong-based Unico Shipping Co Ltd and chartered by Singapore-based V-Shipping Pte Ltd, was carrying the machinery for RRA and an affiliated firm when its cargo was inspected; the designated network — including China-based Shenzhen Xinxin Shipping, Dongguan Zanyin Machinery and Equipment, Athena Shipping, shipmaster Zhang Yanbing, and Turkiye-based Edisa Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi — then falsified bills of lading to obscure the Iran-bound, RRA-consigned cargo after the inspection.

On 23 May 2025 the Bureau of Industry and Security notified major electronic design automation (EDA) suppliers — Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA — by letter that a license is now required for any export, re-export, or in-country transfer of EDA software and technology classified under ECCNs 3D991 and 3E991 where a party to the transaction is located in China or is a Chinese "military end user" wherever located. BIS determined the shipments posed an unacceptable risk of diversion to Chinese military end use. The action was not published as a Federal Register rule; it surfaced publicly only through the affected companies' SEC 8-K disclosures. Synopsys suspended its FY2025 financial guidance in response. BIS rescinded the requirement effective 2 July 2025 (see amendments) amid the broader US-China trade truce, and the three vendors restored access for affected customers.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of silicon metal from Laos, Australia, Norway, and Thailand, publishing four parallel preliminary affirmative CVD determinations on 2025-09-26 following an initiation on 2025-05-21 (petition by Ferroglobe USA, Inc. and Mississippi Silicon LLC). For Laos, Commerce set a preliminary countervailable-subsidy cash-deposit rate of 240.00% ad valorem for both the sole mandatory respondent, Lao Silicon Co., Ltd., and the all-others rate, based entirely on adverse facts available after finding the respondent did not cooperate. Companion CVD investigations against Australia, Norway, and Thailand were found affirmative the same day, each with its own preliminary subsidy-rate cash-deposit schedule. Commerce ordered CBP to suspend liquidation and require cash deposits at the indicated rates on covered entries from the Laos determination onward. Final CVD determinations are aligned with companion antidumping investigations on the same product.

The US Department of Commerce, following affirmative final less-than-fair-value determinations and an affirmative material-injury finding by the US International Trade Commission, issued antidumping duty orders on silicon metal from Angola and Laos, effective 2026-04-16. Commerce set a 68.45% ad valorem weighted-average dumping margin for Angola (both named respondents and the all-others rate) and a 94.44% margin for Laos, both based entirely on adverse facts available after the respondents did not cooperate with the investigation. The orders stem from an April 2025 petition by Ferroglobe USA, Inc. and companion less-than-fair-value investigations initiated 2025-05-21 that also covered Australia and Norway, where preliminary and final LTFV determinations followed on a later schedule.