Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2674 actions· ✨ 91 recent

President Trump signed an Executive Order on June 3, 2026 restructuring the entire US customs-entry compliance architecture for global importers. Key provisions impose heightened bonding minimums and domestic-asset requirements for foreign importers of record (IORs), require CAATSA-compliance and supply-chain-disclosure certifications, restrict foreign IORs to formal entry only (creating a de facto US-IOR monopoly on informal entry), establish a "good standing" requirement for IOR eligibility, and sharply curtail CBP's mitigation authority while setting enhanced penalty floors. DHS/CBP is directed to implement penalty-floor, export-documentation, and disposal provisions within 90 days (~September 2026) and the IOR structural reforms within 180 days (~November 2026). The EO is structurally distinct from tariff-rate instruments (Section 232 Proclamations 11021/11032), trade-remedy channels (USTR Section 301), statutory forced-labor enforcement (UFLPA), and targeted-sanctions channels (BIS/OFAC) — it reshapes the foundational compliance architecture through which all goods enter the US market.

A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade (CIT), in Slip Op. 26-47 (Court Nos. 26-01472 and 26-01606, decided 7 May 2026), held 2-1 that President Trump's Proclamation 11012 — which imposed a temporary 10% ad-valorem import surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — exceeded statutory authority because the proclamation did not identify a "fundamental international payments problem" as defined by the 1974 Congress (the balance-of-trade or current-account deficit relied upon by the government is not the type of balance-of-payments deficit the statute contemplates). The court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting CBP from collecting Section 122 duties from the three prevailing plaintiff- importers and ordered refunds with statutory interest for duties already paid; it declined to issue a nationwide injunction. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) entered an administrative stay of the CIT injunction on 12 May 2026 pending appeal, and the CIT denied the government's own motion to stay its ruling on 20 May 2026; the CAFC appeal is now pending.

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 Bureau of Industry and Security issued an interim final rule ("Adoption and Procedures of the Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Tariff Inclusions Process," 90 FR 18780, RIN 0694-AK13) adopting the procedural framework directed by Proclamations 10895 and 10896 of 10 February 2025 for adding derivative steel and aluminum articles to the scope of the 25% Section 232 duties. Eligible US producers and industry associations may submit inclusion requests during three two-week windows per year (opening in May, September and January); BIS evaluates each request on a sixty-day clock and publishes a determination memorandum granting or denying inclusion. The rule replaces the legacy product-exclusions architecture with a domestic-producer-driven inclusions architecture, structurally expanding the perimeter of covered tariff lines over time.

On December 15, 2023, BIS published a procedural notice (88 FR 86821) extending the public comment deadline for two major October 25, 2023 interim final rules: the Semiconductor Manufacturing Items IFR (88 FR 73424) and the Advanced Computing / Supercomputer Semiconductor End-Use IFR (88 FR 73458). The original comment deadline of December 18, 2023 was extended by 30 days to January 17, 2024, to allow stakeholders additional time to review the complex regulatory changes and submit substantive input. The document contains no amendments to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and no changes to export-control parameters.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations (CWCR, 15 CFR Part 710) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR, 15 CFR Parts 712 and 745) to implement two OPCW Conference of States Parties decisions (C-24/DEC.4 and C-24/DEC.5) from November 2019. The rule adds four chemical families — two families of alkyl phosphonamidic fluorides, O-alkyl phosphoramidofluoridates, and quaternary/bisquaternary carbamates — to CWC Schedule 1(A), effective immediately upon publication. The rule also clarifies the definition of "production" in 15 CFR § 710.1 to include intermediates, by-products, and waste products generated within a defined manufacturing sequence.