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Structured register of government actions in the geoeconomic space — export controls, tariffs, sanctions, FDI screening, subsidies, industrial-policy laws — cross-referenced into the country, minerals, and ETF surface. Charter: docs/IPTM_CHARTER.md.
Severity 1-5 is the qualitative impact rating (1=minor, 5=structural). The bilateral-trade-grounded quant scorer is the next IPTM milestone. RBI (Register Breadth Index) is a complementary structural-breadth indicator from scripts/py/iptm/breadth.py; divergence between RBI and severity is itself informative (high-sev / low-RBI = strategic chokepoint; low-sev / high-RBI = broad but shallow). Every action has at least one primary source URL. Verify-or-don't-file. See also themes, timeline, graph, sankey, map, country exposure, sector exposure, material exposure (+ graph), weekly briefs, portfolio scan, escalation monitor, trans-shipment hubs. Internal triage tools (RSS-poller candidate feed, source-feed health) live under /admin/candidates + /admin/sources. Subscribe via Atom feed (accepts ?country=CN, ?material=lithium, ?issuer=BIS, ?type=export_control, ?etf=SOXX, ?company=NVDA, ?minSeverity=4, ?year=2026, ?q=…) or pull /api/iptm/actions.
MOFCOM's Foreign Trade Division issued Trade Letter [2026] No. 404 on 29 September 2026, opening the annual declaration cycle for 2027 automobile and motorcycle export licences under China's 2012 export-order licensing framework. The online application system opens 30 September 2026 and local commerce departments must complete initial review and submit applications to MOFCOM by 28 October 2026. For the first time, all applicants — including Category A manufacturers and vehicle-modification producers — must submit a new "Overseas Compliance Management Commitment Letter" pledging to follow pricing regulations and refrain from disrupting market order to gain unfair competitive advantage; companies that miss the deadline or fail to submit required documentation lose eligibility for an export licence.
The US Department of State amends the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (22 CFR Parts 120, 123, 125 and 126) to clarify certain policy-of-denial provisions, update country policies for Ethiopia and Somalia, add Saudi Arabia and Peru to the list of Major Non-NATO Allies (MNNA), and make other miscellaneous corrections. The Ethiopia change implements a February 5, 2026 Secretary of State determination terminating the ITAR policy of denial on defense-article and defense-service exports to Ethiopia's armed forces, police, intelligence and other internal-security forces — a change from the denial posture imposed during the Tigray war. Saudi Arabia and Peru's MNNA designations (Presidential determinations of January 13 and 14, 2026 respectively) make both countries eligible for preferential ITAR treatment, including certain license exemptions, priority license-application review, and participation in cooperative defense R&D programs. The rule is effective on publication.
On 18 September 2026 the U.S. Department of State published an interim final rule amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to remove certain uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) from U.S. Munitions List Category XX(a), effective 19 October 2026. Vessels removed from the scope of Category XX(a)(10) that are not separately described elsewhere on the USML become subject to the Commerce Department's Export Administration Regulations (EAR) instead — a reclassification from the stricter State Department license regime to Commerce jurisdiction, not a full decontrol. The Department states the removed vessels "do not warrant control under the ITAR" and is separately soliciting comments on further refining UUV controls and license exemptions.
On 14 September 2026 the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation (reference C(2026)6323) amending Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 to add newly-controlled dual-use items implementing the 2025 multilateral cycle of the Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, and NSG. New entries include semiconductor fabrication equipment (atomic layer deposition, EUV inspection systems, wafer cleaning), advanced computing ICs with digital processing units, ceramic matrix composites, additive-manufacturing systems for energetic materials, and chemical vapor deposition equipment for silicon carbide fibre production. The regulation is not yet in force: it now enters the standard two-month European Parliament/Council non-objection scrutiny period before publication in the Official Journal.
The US Department of State amends 22 CFR §126.1 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to extend the suspension of the Republic of Cyprus's status as a proscribed destination for defense exports, imports and sales for a further one-year period, from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. The rule continues the current policy that originally lifted the arms embargo to Cyprus effective October 1, 2022, and has been renewed annually since. No new relief or restriction is introduced; the suspension is extended on its existing terms.
On 9 September 2026 the UK Export Control Joint Unit published Notice to Exporters 2026/19, revoking and replacing the Open General Licence (Global Combat Air Programme) and issuing a new Open General Export Licence for "de minimis" exports under the UK-France-Germany-Spain Agreement on Defence Export Controls (published 10 December 2025). The new OGEL implements the Agreement's de-minimis principle: where UK-origin content does not exceed 20% of the value of a final defence system integrated by France, Germany or Spain, re-export/re-transfer authorisation is granted without case-by-case licensing, subject to a national-security carve-out. Both licences remove individual application requirements for a defined category of collaborative defence-programme exports rather than introducing new restrictions.
The US Department of State published an interim final rule removing from the US Munitions List (USML) certain civil aircraft modified to incorporate aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) — directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) and the missile-warning systems that operate them, used to protect aircraft from MANPADS and other guided-weapon threats. Qualifying aircraft (FAA- or allied-NATO-certificated transport/commuter types before modification) move from State/ITAR licensing jurisdiction to the less restrictive Commerce/EAR regime under ECCN 9A991.b. The rule also excludes certain reexport and temporary-import activities involving such ASE from ITAR licensing requirements entirely. Effective October 13, 2026, with public comments accepted through September 28, 2026.
The US Department of State extended, through 30 August 2028, a standing temporary modification of Category XI(b) of the US Munitions List (USML) — the ITAR category covering electronic systems and software specially designed for collecting, surveying, monitoring or exploiting the electromagnetic spectrum for intelligence purposes. The modification reinstates pre-30-December-2014 control scope by reinserting the phrase "analyze and produce information from" and adding software to the Category XI(b) description, after a 2014 USML revision was read by some exporters as narrowing coverage of intelligence-analytics software. This is the latest in a chain of extensions dating to the original July 2014 rule (79 FR 37536), most recently extended through August 2026 (86 FR 48021); no new items are added to or removed from the Munitions List by this action.
BIS published a temporary final rule under DPA section 101 (following a Presidential Determination dated July 30, 2026 that recoverable critical minerals and materials are scarce and essential to national defense) requiring U.S. persons to allocate 100 percent of their monthly sales of black mass (shredded lithium-ion battery scrap containing lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite) and tungsten waste and scrap to other U.S. persons, effectively barring export of these materials without an explicit BIS adjustment or exception. The order takes effect August 27, 2026, runs for one year through August 27, 2027, and BIS is accepting public comments through November 4, 2026 on whether additional sales requirements are needed. This is the first US DPA/export-control action targeting the recycling and secondary-materials stage of the critical minerals supply chain, rather than primary mining or refining.
China's Ministry of Commerce announced that drones, key drone components, and related technologies already listed on China's Dual-Use Items Export Control List will be subject to strict case-by-case review when exported to the United States, and will no longer be eligible for licensing-facilitation measures. The measure does not add new items to the control list or ban exports outright — it tightens the review standard and removes expedited-licensing treatment for existing listed drone items. MOFCOM said the move is a countermeasure responding to recent US actions, including the FCC's ban on imports of Chinese drones and DHS's addition of 43 Chinese companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list.
BIS published a final rule removing the UAE from Export Administration Regulations Country Groups D:3 and D:4 and adding it to Country Group A:5 — the tier reserved for the closest US allies. The change unlocks License Exception STA (military items, commercial satellites/spacecraft, and dual-use goods for oil/gas, desalination and civil nuclear power) plus several other license exceptions, and grants the UAE government and BIS-preapproved entities (currently G42 and Core42 only, per Supplement No. 8) license-free export of advanced computing items. Preapproved private entities have a 270-day window to become majority US-owned or lose automatic eligibility; other private UAE entities must still petition BIS case-by-case.
On 29 June 2026 China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 27 [2026], adding 20 Japanese entities to the dual-use-item export-control Control List (受控名单) under the Dual-Use Export Control Regulations. The designated entities include four defense research institutes (National Institute for Defense Studies plus ground-, naval- and air-systems research bodies) and 16 companies, primarily Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries subsidiaries. The Control List designation imposes an absolute prohibition on exporting PRC-origin dual-use items — including rare earths and gallium/germanium/antimony-class strategic minerals — to the listed parties, and bars any third-country transfer of Chinese-origin dual-use items to them; ongoing supply activity must cease immediately, with exceptions only via special MOFCOM application. MOFCOM stated the action targets entities "involved in enhancing Japan's military capabilities."
China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 23 of 2026 on June 22, 2026, adding 10 US entities to the Export Control Management List under the Export Control Law and Dual-Use Items Export Control Regulations. The listing prohibits Chinese exporters from supplying dual-use items to these entities and bars any global party from transferring China-origin dual-use goods to them; ongoing transactions are suspended pending MOFCOM approval. The 10 entities include the two largest non-Chinese rare earth producers — MP Materials Corp. (Mountain Pass, CA) and USA Rare Earth Inc. (Round Top, TX) — as well as eight US defence firms (Aveox, Red Cat Holdings, Teal Drones, IMSAR, Jaia Robotics, Ball Aerospace, Oshkosh Defense, L3Harris Maritime). MOFCOM explicitly framed the action as retaliation for the US DoD's June 8, 2026 update to the Section 1260H Chinese Military Companies list, which added ~80 Chinese parent firms and 188 affiliates.
On 19 June 2026, President Mamadi Doumbouya chaired a strategic meeting in Conakry with industrial, semi-industrial and artisanal gold operators and gold-buying counters, announcing that "l'exportation de l'or brut appartient désormais au passé" — a formal and permanent prohibition on exporting unrefined gold mined in Guinea. All gold must henceforth be refined domestically, primarily via the state-backed Nimba Gold Refinery (Gbessia, Conakry), before any international sale. Operators who continue exporting raw gold risk suspension or revocation of their operating licence and mining convention. The measure extends Guinea's Simandou 2040 local-transformation doctrine — already applied to bauxite and iron ore — to the gold sector for the first time.
On June 17, 2026, BIS announced a $36,184,680 civil penalty settlement with Robert Bosch GmbH (Stuttgart, Germany) — the largest-ever BIS enforcement penalty against a non-US company for Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR) violations. Between September 16, 2020 and September 26, 2024, Bosch exported approximately $72.4 million in MEMS sensor products and automotive software from abroad to Huawei Technologies and its Entity List affiliates without the required BIS license. Bosch filed a Voluntary Self-Disclosure and cooperated throughout; the DOJ issued the first-ever NSD declination under its newly established Corporate Enforcement Policy, declining criminal prosecution entirely.
DGFT Notification No. 16/2026-27 (13 May 2026) escalated the export policy for sugar under ITC(HS) codes 1701 14 90 (raw sugar) and 1701 99 90 (white and refined sugar) from "Restricted" to "Prohibited" with immediate effect, covering all three commercial grades. The prohibition runs until 30 September 2026, or until a further Central Government order, whichever is earlier. The measure is a pre-emptive domestic price-stabilisation step ahead of an uncertain 2025-26 sugarcane season; carve-outs preserve EU and US CXL/Tariff-Rate-Quota obligations, Advance Authorisation Scheme exports, government-to-government shipments, and consignments already in the physical export pipeline before 13 May 2026.
Decision No. 190 of 2026 of Egypt's Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Mohamed Farid, published in the Egyptian Official Gazette (الوقائع المصرية) issue No. 98 (annex / تابع) on 4 May 2026 and effective the following day, imposes a temporary US$90 per metric ton export duty on all nitrogen-based fertilizers (principally urea and ammonium nitrate) for a three-month window expiring early August 2026, with extension possible. The duty is paid in Egyptian pounds at the Central Bank of Egypt prevailing rate at the time of each transaction. Phosphatic fertilizers are excluded. The stated rationale is securing domestic supply availability during a global nitrogen-price surge driven by Russian/Ukrainian supply disruption, Iranian production losses, and seasonal demand. Egypt is the world's #7 nitrogen-fertilizer exporter (≈3.54 Mt exported in 2024); the measure quadruples the prior nominal export-tax level on the segment.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy extended its ban on the export of petroleum products — including gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, gasoil, toluene, xylene, bitumen, and LPG — for a further six months from May 21 to November 21, 2026. The restrictions apply to exports by road and rail, including shipments to fellow EAEU member states. The measure continues a rolling domestic-price-stabilisation regime that has been renewed since at least 2024; the prior extension ran to May 20, 2026.
DGFT Notification No. 12/2026-27 (Gazette S.O. 2222(E)), issued 17 April 2026 under sections 3 and 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, reclassifies high-grade Baryte (Natural Barium Sulphate, ITC(HS) 2511 10 00) Grade A (specific gravity ≥4.2, code 25111010) and Grade B (specific gravity 4.10–4.20, code 25111020) from "Free" to "Restricted" export status, requiring DGFT prior authorisation for all exports in lumps, powder, or other forms. Grade CDW (specific gravity <4.0, code 25111090) remains freely exportable. India produces approximately 80% of global baryte output and the restriction is aimed at ensuring adequate domestic availability for oil-and-gas drilling fluids, radiation shielding, and high-density industrial applications.
Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 431 of 17 April 2026, signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, sets temporary export quotas on mineral fertilisers from Russia for the six-month period 1 June – 30 November 2026. The aggregate quota is approximately 20 million tonnes, comprising over 8.7 Mt for nitrogen fertilisers (urea, ammonium sulphate, UAN), over 4.2 Mt for ammonium nitrate (a separate sub-quota, suspended from 21 March – 21 April 2026 before this cycle opened), and over 7 Mt for complex fertilisers (NPK, NP, NPS, DAP, MAP). The measure continues the recurring six-month quota architecture in place since late 2021 and is the direct successor to the Dec 2024 – May 2025 cycle fixed under Resolution 1400 of October 2024 (and its subsequent extensions). Exemptions apply to EEU members, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, humanitarian-aid lots, and transit flows.
Turkey's Ministry of Trade Export General Directorate issued a circular on 6 April 2026 prohibiting exports of sulphur classified under customs tariff position 2503 (excluding sublimed, precipitated, and colloidal sulphur) effective 7 April 2026 through 30 September 2026. The measure was requested by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in response to a 35–40% surge in domestic sulphur prices and supply shortages triggered by Middle East conflict disruptions to global sulphur flows. Turkey exported approximately 226,500 tonnes of sulphur in 2025, primarily to Egypt, Tanzania, Greece, and Lebanon; Tüpraş's regular 8,000-tonne monthly Mediterranean spot tender was suspended immediately. The ban compounds Russia's concurrent sulphur export ban (Decree No. 350, extended to 30 June 2026), compressing Mediterranean and East African sulphur availability during the global spring–summer fertiliser demand peak.
Government Resolution No. 350 of 31 March 2026 extended Russia's temporary ban on exports of liquid, granulated, and lump sulphur (HS 2503) through 30 June 2026. The measure was originally introduced by Resolution No. 1470 of 28 October 2025 (effective 1 November 2025) to stabilise raw-material supply for domestic mineral-fertiliser production, and had been successively extended through December 2025 and March 2026 before this latest extension. Exemptions apply to EAEU member states, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia; a concurrent GTA-recorded instrument (state-act 97135) converted certain lower-grade sulphur grades to a licensing regime rather than an outright ban.
Presidential Decree No. 193, signed by President Vladimir Putin on 25 March 2026 and in force from 1 May 2026, prohibits the export from Russia of refined gold bars (аффинированное золото в слитках) with a total weight exceeding 100 grams by individuals, legal entities, and individual entrepreneurs. Narrow exceptions apply for EAEU-destination and non-EAEU-destination movements through designated international airports (Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Knevichi/Vladivostok) conditional on Federal Assay Office or Federal Border Service permits. The stated rationale — curbing shadow-economy use of bullion as a foreign-currency substitute and closing capital-flight channels — is analytically inseparable from the broader post-2022 Russia counter-sanctions context and the G7 / LBMA delisting of Russian-origin gold.
Germany's Federal Economic Affairs Ministry (Bundesregierung) and BAFA issued Allgemeine Genehmigung Nr. 48 (AGG 48) on 20 March 2026, a time-limited general export licence simplifying the export of specified air-defence and maritime-defence equipment to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine, in force until 15 September 2026. Exporters may register retrospectively up to 30 days after first shipment, replacing individual-licence applications for in-scope items and materially compressing per-shipment administrative lead times. The measure is framed as part of Germany's reinforced commitment to supplying defence equipment to allies countering regional threats and Russian aggression.
Zambia's Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry gazetted Statutory Instrument No. 17 of 2026 on 20 March 2026 (effective 27 March 2026), replacing a prior outright export prohibition on sulphuric acid with a permit-based export control regime under the Control of Goods Act (Chapter 421). The instrument was triggered by an acute domestic shortage after multiple major Zambian copper smelters entered simultaneous extended maintenance shutdowns in 2025, collapsing by-product acid production. As the dominant supplier of sulphuric acid to DRC hydrometallurgical copper and cobalt mines, Zambia's restriction disrupted leaching operations across the DRC's oxide-ore processing chain. A partial easing began in May 2026 as smelter capacity recovered, with company-specific export authorisations issued to Chambishi Copper Smelter and Mopani Copper Mines.
Turkish President Erdoğan signed Presidential Decision No. 11068 on 16 March 2026, published in the Resmî Gazete on 17 March 2026, establishing a mandatory pre-clearance regime for the transit passage and re-export of controlled military items through Türkiye's customs territory. Covered items include military vehicles and defence equipment, weapons and ammunition and their spare parts, military explosives, and dual-use technologies associated with these categories, as defined under Law No. 5201. Any entity seeking to move such goods through Türkiye must obtain a "uygunluk yazısı" (compliance letter) from the Ministry of Trade, which reviews applications in consultation with relevant public institutions. The measure directly operationalises Türkiye's response to sustained US pressure over Iran-related sanctions evasion via Turkish transit corridors and entity-list additions naming Türkiye-based diversion networks.
The Zambian Minister of Finance suspended the 10% export duty on copper concentrates (HS 2603.00.21–29) effective 5 March 2026 under Section 89 of the Customs and Excise Act, providing temporary duty relief to miners whose domestic processing capacity was constrained by extended smelter maintenance cycles at Mopani/ZCCM-IH, Lumwana (Barrick), First Quantum Kansanshi, and Nkana. The suspension allows qualifying copper concentrate to be exported for offshore processing at zero duty, addressing a stockpile overhang across Zambia's copper belt that could not be absorbed by the domestic smelter fleet. A follow-on extension (SI No. 43/2026, effective 1 June 2026 through 30 September 2026) introduced company-specific quotas totalling 271,742 t and mandated channelling through Industrial Resources Limited, an IDC subsidiary.
On 25 February 2026 Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, under Minister Polite Kambamura, announced an immediate and indefinite suspension of exports of all unprocessed minerals — including lithium-bearing spodumene concentrates, which had previously been exempt from the country's December 2022 ban on raw lithium ore (Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022). The directive was communicated by ministerial letter dated 17 February 2026 to the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe and copied to lithium producers; the suspension took effect on 25 February and explicitly covered consignments already in transit, with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) ordered to halt clearance at the border. The measure brings forward by roughly eleven months a lithium-concentrate export ban that had been telegraphed for January 2027, and broadens it to all raw mineral exports. The Minister cited "national interest", in-country beneficiation, transparency, and prevention of mineral export "leakages" (smuggling and under-invoicing) as the rationale. Bloomberg and Reuters reporting noted under-declaration of grade and value as a proximate trigger; the government later (April 2026) clarified that reinstated exports would require Quota Verification certificates, monthly reporting, on-site assay laboratories, and individual producer-level export ceilings — i.e. the suspension functions as a reset to a quota regime rather than a permanent embargo. Zimbabwe is the world's fifth-largest lithium producer (~6-7% of global supply on a contained-LCE basis) and exported 1.128 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate in 2025 (an 11% YoY increase). The producer base is overwhelmingly Chinese-owned: Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (Arcadia / Prospect), Sinomine Resource Group (Bikita Minerals), Chengxin Lithium (Sabi Star), and Sichuan Yahua (Kamativi) together account for the majority of output. The ban therefore primarily disrupts Chinese midstream lithium converters in Sichuan and Jiangxi that depend on Zimbabwean spodumene feedstock, while incrementally tightening the global seaborne concentrate market. The action is structurally a continuation of the EM resource-nationalism / upstream-capture template pioneered by Indonesia's nickel-ore ban (2020) and most recently extended by the DRC's ARECOMS cobalt suspension and quota system (Feb-Oct 2025). It reinforces a pattern in which producing-country governments capture processing margin from consuming-country smelters, and it does so in a commodity (lithium) where ex-China refining capacity is still thin, magnifying near-term price impact even though the headline share of global supply removed is moderate.
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, issued Notification No. 62/2025-26 on 24 February 2026 permitting the export of 25 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of wheat under HS Codes 10011900 (durum wheat - other) and 10019910 (other wheat) while keeping the headline export-policy classification as "Prohibited". A second tranche of 25 LMT was authorised by Notification No. 13/2026-27 on 27 April 2026, bringing the cumulative quota envelope to 50 LMT (5 million tonnes). Public Notice No. 05/2026-27 (30 April 2026) prescribed allocation modalities for the second tranche: 18 LMT for large exporters, 5 LMT for state trading entities and cooperatives, and 2 LMT for MSMEs, with online applications open 1-10 May 2026 and authorisations valid for six months. The mechanism partially unwinds the May 2022 blanket wheat export ban (DGFT Notification 06/2015-2020) which had been in continuous force for nearly four years, while preserving DGFT's authority to retighten via the prohibition baseline. Pre-existing government-to-government exports to meet third-country food security needs remain permitted outside the quota envelope.
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 Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule (RIN 0694-AK43, 91 FR 1684, signed 13 January 2026, effective 15 January 2026) revising the EAR license-review policy for exports of certain advanced-computing integrated circuits to end-users in China and Macau from a presumption of denial to case-by-case review. Eligibility is limited to commodities controlled under ECCN 3A090.a and 3A090.b with a Total Processing Performance (TPP) below 21,000 and total DRAM bandwidth below 6,500 GB/s — the band that covers NVIDIA H200 and AMD MI325X-equivalents and below. To qualify, exporters must certify (i) sufficiency of US supply such that the export will not delay domestic orders or divert foundry capacity, (ii) that aggregate TPP of advanced-node ICs exported to China or Macau will not exceed 50% of domestic shipments, (iii) compliance with end-use and end-user prohibitions, and (iv) prior performance review by a qualified independent third-party testing lab headquartered in the United States. The rule is the first material rollback of the October 2022 / October 2023 / December 2024 advanced-computing export-control architecture and operationalises the Trump-administration policy of trading H200-class chip access against Chinese cooperation on critical minerals, fentanyl precursors and Taiwan-strait restraint.
On 6 January 2026 China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 1 [2026] "On Strengthening Export Controls on Dual-Use Items to Japan" (商务部公告2026年第1号), the first PRC export-control instrument to single out a named country other than the United States. Effective immediately on publication with no wind-down period, the measure prohibits export of all dual-use items under PRC export-control law where the end-user is the Japanese Ministry of Defense or Self-Defense Forces, the end-use is Japanese military, or — under a novel catch-all standard — the transaction would "enhance Japan's military capabilities." The standard is explicitly extraterritorial, covering transfers of PRC-origin dual-use items through third countries and in-country transfers where the end-user / end-use falls within scope. The political trigger was Japanese PM Takaichi's November 2025 Diet remarks framing a Taiwan contingency as a Japanese "survival-threatening situation" justifying SDF deployment.
Decision No. 582 of 2025 of Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, published in the Egyptian Official Gazette (Issue 4 bis) on 5 January 2026, carves a narrow, fee-bearing exception into Egypt's standing export ban on raw white silica sand (originally imposed by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 108 of 2022). Shipments of raw white sand destined for production projects established inside Egypt's free zones are now permitted, but only within quantities approved by the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) and subject to a new export duty of US$15 per metric ton (or the EGP equivalent). Outside this free-zone exception, the general export ban on the material remains in force.
Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2089 of 22 December 2025 sets the tariff quota for the export of wheat, meslin, barley, and corn from Russia to countries outside the Eurasian Economic Union at 20 million tonnes, effective from 15 February to 30 June 2026. The quota for rye exports is set at zero tonnes. Within the quota, exports remain subject to Russia's floating in-quota grain export duty (formula-driven, indexed to global wheat reference prices); shipments outside the quota face a duty of 50% of customs value, but not less than €100 per tonne. Humanitarian-aid shipments authorised by separate government decisions are exempt. The H1 2026 cap roughly doubles the 10.6-Mt H1 2025 quota and is calibrated to a record 137-Mt 2025/26 Russian grain harvest.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (P.L. 119-60), signed into law on 18 December 2025, expands the Department of Defense's existing "covered materials" domestic- sourcing restriction (which already barred DoD contracting for SmCo/NdFeB magnets, tantalum and tungsten sourced from China, Russia, Iran or North Korea) to add gallium, germanium and molybdenum under Section 844. Restrictions on materials "melted or produced" in a covered nation take effect 31 December 2026, widening on 1 January 2027 to also cover materials "mined, refined, or separated" in a covered nation; the gallium/germanium additions specifically phase in on 18 December 2027. The same NDAA bundles two related supply-chain provisions: Section 867 gives DoD broader authority (contracts, grants, other-transaction agreements, equity-style investments, and anti-market-manipulation subsidies) to invest in the domestic industrial base for critical minerals, microelectronics, machine tools and other defense-relevant capacity, and Section 842 bars DoD from procuring advanced batteries whose cells or key components are owned, sourced, refined or produced by a foreign entity of concern, phased in 2028-2031.
The UK Export Control (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1197) entered into force on 16 December 2025, extending the UK's strategic export control regime to cover quantum computing hardware (ECCN-aligned 4A506), advanced and cryogenic semiconductor technologies (3A501, 3A504, 3B501), and associated software and technology categories. The regulations also transfer existing national controls on quantum and advanced semiconductor items from the Export Control Order 2008 into the UK's assimilated Dual-Use Regulation (retained EU 428/2009 as amended), harmonising the UK's dual-use schedule with Wassenaar Arrangement 2024 updates. The action is explicitly calibrated as "Wassenaar Minus One" — aligning UK controls with the US BIS (EAR / ECCN framework) and EU (Regulation 2021/821 as amended) without requiring multilateral consensus on each item. It is the first UK statutory instrument since Brexit to add substantial new technology-specific dual-use controls targeting advanced semiconductor and quantum capabilities.
On 9 December 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs jointly issued Announcement No. 79 of 2025, reinstating an export-licence management system for ~300 HS-coded steel products effective 1 January 2026. Exporters must obtain a per-contract licence supported by a manufacturer-issued product quality inspection certificate; licences are issued by MOFCOM (for centrally-administered SOEs) and provincial / sub-provincial commerce departments. The regime is the first reinstatement of Chinese steel-export licensing in 16 years (since 2009) and applies the export-licensing instrument — previously used for critical minerals and dual-use goods — to a non-critical bulk commodity for the first time.
Decision No. 504 of 2025 of Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, published in the Official Egyptian Gazette on 6 December 2025 and effective the following day, renews for a further one-year period Egypt's specific (per-unit) export duties on several categories of animal-feed inputs: EGP 1,200/ton on straw and grain husks (rice straw excluded), US$60/ton on alfalfa (barsim) and similar forage materials, EGP 1,800/ton on bran and milling by-products (rice bran excluded), EGP 1,800/ton on plant waste/residues used in animal feed (corn cobs and stalks excluded), and EGP 600/ton on corn silage. Exports destined for productive projects in Egyptian free zones are exempt, subject to quantities approved by the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI). The stated rationale is protecting domestic feed-input availability and price stability for Egypt's livestock and poultry sector.
Decision No. 530 of 2025 of Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade renews, for a further one-year period from the expiry of the prior decision, an export duty of EGP 9,000 (~US$189) per metric ton on scrap and waste of stainless-steel alloys (HS 7204.21), implemented via Egyptian Customs Tariff Circular No. 67/2025. Shipments destined for free zones within Egypt are excluded from the duty. The stated rationale is to regulate exports of what the ministry classifies as a strategic input and preserve domestic feedstock supply for Egypt's steel industry.
On 20 November 2025 the White House and US Department of Commerce / Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) authorised Abu Dhabi AI holding company G42 to import advanced computing chips — equivalent to approximately 35,000 Nvidia GB300 Blackwell processors — under the UAE-pioneered Regulated Technology Environment (RTE) compliance framework. The RTE is an Emirati-designed technology governance and audit architecture, developed by G42 and approved under BIS guidelines, with binding UAE-side controls to prevent onward diversion to foreign adversary nations. The authorisation accelerates the Stargate UAE project — a 1 GW AI compute cluster being built by G42 for OpenAI in partnership with Oracle, Cisco, NVIDIA, and SoftBank Group — and represents the first concluded major country-level advanced-compute authorisation following the May 2025 rescission of the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule.
Israel's Minister of Defense signed an order on 18 November 2025 revoking the Order Governing the Control of Commodities and Services (Engagement in Encryption Items) of 1974, with effect on 21 March 2026 (four-month implementation period). The 51-year-old standalone Encryption Order regime — which licensed both civilian and defense-grade encryption items through a parallel Ministry of Defense track — is replaced by a unified architecture in which defense-grade dual-use items move to the Defense Export Controls Agency (DECA) at the Ministry of Defense, and civilian dual-use items (Wassenaar list) move to the Export Control Agency (ECA) at the Ministry of Economy and Industry. Many B2C consumer products with embedded encryption are decontrolled outright; B2B / commercial products remain controlled but under DECA or ECA rather than the legacy Encryption Order regime.
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs International Trade Administration (MOEA-ITA) published a draft amendment to the Strategic High-Tech Commodities (SHTC) export control lists on 18 November 2025, subject to a 60-day public-preview period, adding 18 items in three new categories — advanced 3D printing equipment (metal-powder-bed- fusion, laser-sintering, electron-beam-melting capable systems), advanced semiconductor equipment (CMOS chips, low-temperature cryogenic cooling, scanning electron microscope equipment, cryogenic wafer probers), and quantum computers (general-purpose programmable quantum computing systems). Exporters must obtain MOEA-ITA prior approval before shipment; permits will be issued only after confirming goods will not be used in weapons-of-mass-destruction programmes.
Indonesia's Ministry of Finance issued Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 80 of 2025 on 17 November 2025, imposing tiered export duties on gold products effective 23 December 2025. Rates range from 7.5% to 15% depending on product form (dore, granules, or ingots/cast bars) and a reference-price trigger at US$3,200/troy oz, with dore attracting the highest duty (12.5% below $3,200/oz; 15% at or above). The policy aims to secure domestic gold supply, stabilise local refinery feedstock prices, and advance Indonesia's hilirisasi (downstreaming) agenda by incentivising in-country processing of raw gold output.
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs International Trade Administration (MOEA-ITA) issued a pre-notice (17 November 2025, doc. 經授貿字第 11450120760號) proposing amendments to the "Dual-Use Goods and Technology Export Control List" and the "General Military Goods List" under the Strategic High-Tech Commodities (SHTC) regime, adding or reclassifying items in the basic-inorganic-chemicals, chemical-products, and engines/turbines categories to align with Wassenaar Arrangement list updates. Following the standard 60-day public-comment period, MOEA-ITA published the finalised amendment on 11 February 2026 (doc. 經貿字第 11550200140號), effective immediately, requiring exporters of the newly listed dual-use and military goods to obtain prior export licences regardless of destination.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule suspending, for one year, the interim final rule "Expansion of End-User Controls to Cover Affiliates of Certain Listed Entities" (90 FR 47201, Sept. 30, 2025). Effective November 10, 2025 and ending November 9, 2026, the amendments to 15 CFR parts 732, 734, 736, 744, and 748 made by the Affiliates Rule are stayed; the original Entity List restrictions on named parties remain in force, but the automatic 50%-ownership-based extension to unlisted affiliates is paused. Phase two — re-instating the Affiliates Rule changes — is scheduled for November 10, 2026 absent a future extension.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule (FR Doc. 2025-19858; 90 FR 50858) removing Arrow China Electronics Trading Co., Ltd. from the Entity List under the destination of China and removing six aliases associated with Arrow Electronics (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (which itself remains listed but with a narrower alias footprint). The End-User Review Committee (ERC) made the decision by unanimous vote on the basis of information received pursuant to 15 CFR §744.16 regarding the relationships of the aliases and the parties' commitments to enhance export-compliance measures. Effective November 10, 2025.
Japan's Cabinet adopted a Cabinet Order on 11 November 2025 (promulgated 14 November 2025, effective 14 February 2026) amending Appended Table 1 of the Export Trade Control Order (輸出貿易管理令) to add three new list-control item categories: (i) peptide synthesizers and related components (Item group mapping to Australia Group 2023–2024 plenary dual-use biotechnology controls, aligning Japan with the US BIS implementation promulgated December 2024), (ii) powders of refractory metals or their alloys below specified particle-size and purity thresholds — tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, tantalum, and rhenium powders used as additive- manufacturing feedstocks (Item 5(20), implementing a Wassenaar Arrangement plenary outcome on metal-powder dual-use), and (iii) modules, assemblies, or devices incorporating field-programmable logic devices (FPGAs) above specified gate-count and process-node thresholds (Item 7(10-2), extending Japan's semiconductor-component AI-compute perimeter). This is the first discrete Appended Table 1 list-control amendment filed under the post-October-2025 FEFTA catch-all- controls overhaul architecture.
On 10 November 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce and four other departments issued Announcement No. 73 of 2025, adjusting the "Catalogue of Precursor Chemicals for Export to Specific Countries (Regions)" and adding the United States, Canada and Mexico to the "Specific Countries (Regions) Directory" under the Interim Provisions on the Management of Exports of Precursor Chemicals to Specific Countries (Regions). Exporters must now apply for a license before shipping 13 newly listed categories of precursor chemicals (used in illicit fentanyl and other synthetic-drug manufacture) to these three countries; exports of the same chemicals to other destinations remain unrestricted. The measure took effect the same day it was announced.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) issued Announcement No. 72 (2025) on November 9, 2025, suspending Article 2 of Announcement No. 46 (2024) — the provision that had imposed a categorical export ban on gallium, germanium, antimony, superhard materials, and graphite dual-use items destined for the United States. The suspension is valid until November 27, 2026, reverting these exports to China's standard dual-use licensing framework for that period. Article 1 of Announcement No. 46 — prohibiting re-exports to US military end-users regardless of routing — remains fully in force. The measure followed bilateral US-China trade consultations and signals a conditional de-escalation window within China's established critical-minerals counter-strike posture.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) issued Announcement No. 70 (2025) on November 7, 2025, suspending for one year the package of rare-earth export-control measures announced on October 9, 2025 (Announcements Nos. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62). The suspended measures include the licensing regime on medium- and heavy-rare-earth elements, rare-earth processing equipment and technologies, lithium-battery and synthetic-graphite anode materials, superhard materials, and — most significantly — the extraterritorial "0.1% content" rule of Announcement No. 61 that asserted licence jurisdiction over foreign-made products containing Chinese-origin controlled rare earths. The gazette text fixes the window explicitly: "自即日起至2026年11月10日" (from the date of issue until November 10, 2026). This is the rare-earth leg of the post-Busan US-China truce; the dual-use leg (gallium, germanium, antimony, graphite) was suspended two days later by the separate Announcement No. 72 (2025), which runs to November 27, 2026. The two instruments create a two-step expiry cliff in November 2026.