Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

At the 52nd G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains (June 15–17, 2026, under France's G7 Presidency), the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a dedicated leaders' declaration committing to secure supply chains for critical minerals by diversifying sourcing, reducing excessive dependencies on any single foreign supplier, and coordinating investment and market-development tools across G7 members. The declaration references the Partnership On Wide Energy and Resources Resilience Asia (POWERR Asia) as a named allied cooperation vehicle, and calls for stronger G7 coordination on emergency supply-chain response and private-capital mobilisation for critical mineral projects outside of concentrated supplier states. This is the first standalone G7 leaders' declaration specifically dedicated to critical minerals supply-chain security, moving beyond language embedded in broader summit communiqués.

On 26 May 2026 at the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi, the United States, Japan, Australia, and India signed the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework, committing to mobilise up to USD 20 billion in combined government and private-sector investment for mining, processing, refining, and recycling of critical minerals across the Indo-Pacific. The framework coordinates investment-policy tools, exploration support, market-development instruments, and supply-chain financing across all four members, with the explicit aim of diversifying critical mineral supply chains away from single-point dependencies in processing. It is the first Quad-format multilateral critical minerals commitment and represents a structural coordination layer atop existing bilateral frameworks (US-Japan, US-India, Japan-France) and national strategies.

On 26 May 2026 in Yerevan, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signed a Critical Minerals Framework ("Framework for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths") alongside a Strategic Partnership Charter and the TRIPP (Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity) Framework Agreement, elevating US-Armenia relations to a "comprehensive strategic partnership." The critical-minerals framework commits both governments to cooperation across mining, processing and supply-chain security, naming molybdenum explicitly and signalling intent to extend to tungsten, tantalum and rare-earths, and to the transit-corridor logistics the TRIPP framework is meant to open across the South Caucasus.

On 26 May 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar signed a Strategic Critical Minerals Cooperation Framework at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, formalising bilateral cooperation across the full critical-minerals and rare-earths value chain — mining, processing, recycling, and downstream investment. The framework commits both governments to protecting sensitive supply chains from coercive market practices and reducing collective vulnerability to single-source monopolies, extending the FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) bilateral architecture from its February 2026 founding phase into a FORGE expansion phase. The US Government is mobilising over $30 billion in letters of interest, loans, investments, and other support alongside the private sector in support of FORGE-aligned projects; simultaneously the four Quad partners (US, Japan, Australia, India) announced a separate Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework targeting up to $20 billion in government and private-sector mobilisation.

Brazil enacted Lei 15.506 of 16 September 2026 (in force on publication, Art. 51), establishing the Política Nacional de Minerais Críticos e Estratégicos (PNMCE) — Brazil's first standalone critical-minerals sovereignty framework — and the Conselho Nacional para Industrialização de Minerais Críticos e Estratégicos (CIMCE). The law originated as Bill PL 2780/2024, approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 6-7, 2026 (one day before the Lula-Trump White House meeting) and then by the Senate. It authorises the Union to create the Fundo Garantidor da Atividade Mineral (FGAM) with up to R$2bn (Art. 9) to guarantee critical-mineral projects, and a tax credit of up to 20% of spend on critical-mineral processing, transformation and urban mining. The Chamber-approved text (CMCE committee with prior-approval rights over takeovers and foreign participation, FGAM up to R$5bn, 0.3% gross-revenue R&D levy) was amended before enactment; see the 2026-09-16 amendment.

Zimbabwe's Cabinet approved a comprehensive Minerals Value Chain Framework on April 14-15, 2026, following a presentation by Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga. The framework introduces four binding instruments: a mandatory Value-Added Compliance Certificate (VACC) required for any mineral export permit; eight regional beneficiation Special Economic Zones; a mine-to-market smart tracking corridor; and a national analytical-laboratory network anchored at state universities. The framework operationalises the existing raw-mineral export ban architecture into a coherent governance and compliance regime, targeting zero leakage and full domestic value-addition across Zimbabwe's critical-mineral endowment.

South Korea's National Assembly passed the Special Act for Korea-US Strategic Investment Management (한미 전략적 투자 관리를 위한 특별법) on 12 March 2026 by a bipartisan vote of 226-8-8, authorising a sovereign-backed US$350bn (~KRW 517tn) investment commitment to the United States over an annual US$20bn cap. The act creates the Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation (한미전략투자공사), a new state-run entity with KRW 2tn (~US$1.36bn) government-financed paid-in capital, as the institutional vehicle to execute the bilateral investment MOU. Article 3 Clause 3 permits investment decisions to proceed despite insufficient commercial viability when national-security or supply-chain-stability grounds exist, subject to prior consent of the relevant National Assembly Standing Committee, operationalising the December 2025 Korea-US Strategic Trade and Investment Deal investment-pledge tranche.

On 10 March 2026, Chile's Ministry of Mining submitted to the Contraloría General de la República the supreme decree establishing the requirements and conditions for a Special Lithium Operating Contract (CEOL) at the Laguna Verde salt flat in the Atacama Region. The CEOL is the third contract under the 2023 National Lithium Strategy and covers a 153 km² concession area across all project phases — exploration, evaluation, construction, production and closure — for a 40-year term. The operator is a consortium led by UK-listed CleanTech Lithium plc (CTL.L), which holds a JORC- compliant resource of 1.9 million tonnes LCE and targets 20,000 t LCE per year at plateau production. Contraloría toma de razón (formal legal ratification) was expected by Q2 2026.

On 12 February 2026, Chile's Ministry of Mining and Codelco (via subsidiary Salar de Maricunga SpA) signed the definitive Contrato Especial de Operación de Litio (CEOL) for the Salar de Maricunga, formalising Rio Tinto as strategic partner with a capital commitment of up to US$900 million. The instrument constitutes the second tranche of Chile's 2023 National Lithium Strategy, distinct from the NovaAndino Litio (Codelco–SQM) JV that governs the Salar de Atacama tranche. Rio Tinto was selected as partner in May 2025 following a competitive process; the definitive CEOL modifies the original 2018 exploration contract, expands the concession area (incorporating pre-1979 concessions acquired from Lithium Power International in 2024), and extends the exploration phase by four years. Remaining conditions precedent — including foreign competition-authority approvals — were projected for completion during 2026.

On 1 February 2026 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled India's Union Budget 2026-27, with Customs Notification No. 02/2026-Customs (dated 1 Feb 2026, effective 2 Feb 2026) implementing the customs-duty package. The notification zero-rates basic customs duty (BCD) on (i) capital goods imported for domestic processing of critical minerals — crushing, beneficiation, refining, chemical-processing, separation/purification, and metallurgical/alloy-making equipment; (ii) capital goods for lithium-ion cell manufacturing for battery energy storage systems (BESS), extending the 2024-25 EV-cell exemption to stationary storage; and (iii) twelve additional critical minerals plus cobalt powder and lithium-ion battery scrap, on top of the 25 critical minerals already exempted in the FY2024-25 budget. In parallel, critical minerals (including monazite / rare-earth concentrate) are migrated from the customs-exemption notification mechanism into the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act at Nil BCD, effective 1 May 2026 — a tariffisation step that locks the rate into primary legislation rather than annually renewable notification. The Budget also commits to dedicated critical-mineral / rare-earth-magnet processing corridors in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Structurally this is the fiscal/tariff layer underneath the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM, Jan 2025) and the National Manufacturing Mission (Feb 2025): NCMM funds capex and overseas asset acquisition (₹34,300 cr), this Budget removes the import-duty drag on the equipment needed to actually run domestic processing lines. It complements the REPM scheme (Nov 2025) for sintered rare-earth magnets and Semicon Mission 2.0 (Feb 2026) on the demand side for refined critical minerals.

On 27 January 2026 President Gabriel Boric presented Chile's National Critical Minerals Strategy (Estrategia Nacional de Minerales Críticos, NCMS) — the country's first horizontal critical-minerals governance framework, identifying 14 minerals as priorities for development and establishing five strategic pillars: production and diversification of critical minerals; responsible mining; development opportunities based on critical minerals; enabling capacities; and strategic international positioning. The strategy was developed through a multi-year participatory process coordinated through Cochilco and Sernageomin, involving a 16-member high-level advisory committee, 120 specialists from 56 institutions, regional workshops and a public consultation. It materially broadens Chile's mineral policy beyond the 2023 lithium-specific National Lithium Strategy to a cross-cutting framework that underpins future bilateral critical-minerals MOUs and positions Chile as a strategic raw-materials partner for the US, EU and Japan under their respective IRA/CRMA/GX supply-chain frameworks.

On 20 January 2026, Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15bn federal Crown investment vehicle, invested US$25 million into Cyclic Materials Inc., a Kingston, Ontario-based rare-earth recycler. The investment forms part of a US$75 million Series C preferred-equity round led by T. Rowe Price Associates, with continued participation from existing investors; CGF's US$25 million contributes roughly one-third of the total raise. Proceeds expand Cyclic's Kingston Center of Excellence and Canada-based R&D footprint and accelerate commercial deployment of its Hub-and-Spoke recycling process, which recovers magnet metals (rare-earth oxides) from end-of-life products and manufacturing scrap at a stated 98%+ recovery rate.

On 15 January 2026, Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15bn federal Crown investment vehicle, announced it will lead an up to US$85 million structured financing for Mangrove Water Technologies Ltd. (Mangrove Lithium), a British Columbia-based lithium refiner. CGF's own commitment is up to US$65 million, alongside continued participation from existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and BMW i Ventures; the CGF tranche closed concurrently with a separate CAD 9 million loan from National Bank of Canada backed by the federal Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. Proceeds commission Mangrove's 1,000-tonne-per-annum Single Stack Plant in Delta, BC and advance development of a planned 20,000-tonne-per-year full-scale plant, with the government citing the deal as reducing reliance on overseas lithium processing and building an onshore mining-to-refining supply chain.