Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 11 March 2026 USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer initiated parallel Section 301 investigations into the acts, policies, and practices of 16 economies — China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India — relating to structural excess capacity and overproduction in manufacturing sectors. The Federal Register notice (FR doc 2026-05214; dockets USTR-2026-0067 and USTR-2026-0068) was published on 17 March 2026. Covered sectors include aluminum, automobiles, batteries, cement, chemicals, electronics, energy goods, glass, machine tools, machinery, paper, plastics, processed food and beverages, robotics, satellites, semiconductors, ships, solar modules, steel, and transportation equipment. Written comments were due by 15 April 2026; USTR held the public hearing beginning 5 May 2026. This is the most sweeping multi-economy Section 301 initiative since the 2018 China investigation and is structurally distinct from the China-only 2024-05-14 §301 tariff hikes and the 2025-07-15 Brazil §301 investigation.

On 25 November 2025 China's National Space Administration (CNSA) released a two-year action plan — covering 2025 through 2027 — setting out 22 key measures to formalise and accelerate the development of China's commercial space sector. The plan transitions commercial space policy from a "nurturing" phase (subsidy-pull, loosely regulated) to a "standards-pull / high-quality development" phase, opening national aerospace R&D programmes and launch-infrastructure slots to private operators, establishing a national commercial space development fund, directing government procurement toward commercial launch vehicles and satellites, and unifying previously fragmented provincial regulatory standards. The plan structurally mirrors NASA's COTS/Commercial Crew model and sets commercial operators on course to expand China's ~18% private-firm share of an estimated US$15bn-per-year domestic launch market toward the 2027 horizon aligned with the 15th Five-Year Plan.

On 9 October 2025 the Shandong Provincial People's Government General Office issued Notice 鲁政办字〔2025〕129号, promulgating "Several Measures to Accelerate High-Quality Development of Shandong's Commercial Aerospace Industry," effective on issuance through 31 December 2027. The package targets three sub-sectors — launch vehicles, satellite manufacturing/applications, and aerospace supporting industries — with a province-wide goal of reaching an annual production capacity of 100 commercial rocket launches and 150 commercial satellites, and a commercial-aerospace industry scale of RMB 50 billion (500亿元), by 2027. Concrete subsidy instruments include a sea-launch insurance rebate (up to 35% of "launch insurance" and "third-party liability insurance" premiums, capped at RMB 3 million per project) for operators launching from the Yantai Dongfang Aerospace Port sea-launch platform, a bounty of up to RMB 1 million per product for satellite-application AI models that pass third-party evaluation, and a computing-power subsidy of up to 5% of contract value (capped at RMB 5 million per firm) for satellite applications that procure significant compute. The measures also direct Yantai to anchor sea-launch and integrated manufacturing, Jinan and Tai'an to build out rocket/satellite manufacturing and constellation operations, and Qingdao to specialise in satellite-application clusters and Belt-and-Road-facing services.

Spain's Council of Ministers approved Royal Decree 768/2025 (published in BOE no. 212, 3 September 2025), establishing the regulatory basis for a direct state loan of up to EUR 1,011,850,000 to Hisdesat Servicios Estratégicos SA to develop the PAZ 2 radar Earth-observation satellite program (two SAR satellites plus ground segment), replacing the PAZ 1 satellite whose service life ends around 2030-2031. The program runs 2025-2032 and is designed to maintain Ministry of Defence access to synthetic-aperture-radar imagery for national-security purposes, with Hisdesat providing observation capacity to the Ministry of Defence for an initial 10-year period per satellite once operational.

In a final rule published at 89 FR 84766 (FR Doc 2024-23932), the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to remove BIS licence requirements on certain spacecraft and related items — including remote-sensing spacecraft and on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (OSAM) items — for exports and reexports to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The rule is effective immediately on publication (23 October 2024) and is part of a three-rule package modernising the US space-related export-control regime (companion IFR 2024-23958 broadens controls relief for ~40 additional destinations; companion proposed rule 2024-23975 floats a new License Exception Commercial Space Activities). The AU/CA/UK carve-out builds on the trilateral National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) framework.

In an interim final rule (IFR) published at 89 FR 84770 (FR Doc 2024-23958), the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to revise controls on spacecraft and related items. The rule shifts the reasons for control on "specially designed" parts, components, accessories, and attachments under ECCNs 9A004.x and 9A515.x from National Security Column 1 / Regional Stability Column 1 (NS1/RS1) to NS2/RS2 — eliminating BIS licensing requirements for roughly 40 destinations that only face NS2/RS2 controls on the Commerce Country Chart. The IFR also broadens License Exception STA-related provisions and expands support for NASA cooperative programmes. It is one of three companion rules (with FR Doc 2024-23932 and a parallel proposed rule on a new License Exception Commercial Space Activities) issued the same day to modernise the US space-related export-control regime.

On 28 March 2024 the Cabinet Office Committee on National Space Policy adopted Japan's Space Technology Strategy, the country's first national space-industrial roadmap establishing priority technology areas (space transportation, satellites, space science and exploration, shared technologies) and the operating framework for the ¥1 trillion (≈USD 6.4 billion) ten-year Space Strategy Fund jointly managed by JAXA on behalf of METI, MEXT and the Cabinet Office. The Strategy sets headline targets of doubling Japan's space-industry market to ¥8 trillion by the early 2030s and reaching ≈30 launches per year. A METI/MEXT/CAO Basic Policy of 26 April 2024 operationalised the Fund's grant architecture, and JAXA opened the first calls in July 2024. The Strategy is the parent authority for subsequent JAXA Space Strategy Fund grant programmes and is Japan's structural counterpart to the EU Space Act (2025) and US National Space Policy.

On 6 April 2023 India's Cabinet Committee on Security approved the Indian Space Policy 2023 (ISP-2023), released publicly on 20 April 2023. The policy is the foundational NewSpace-enablement instrument that opens end-to-end space activities — building satellites, launch vehicles, ground systems, and data services — to private Non-Government Entities (NGEs) for the first time, and codifies the division of responsibilities between ISRO (R&D for advanced technologies), IN-SPACe (commercial-ecosystem authorisation and promotion), NSIL (commercial production / launch services), and NGEs (commercial space activity including ITU filings and asteroid-resource recovery). ISP-2023 is the parent authority for IN-SPACe's subsequent Norms, Guidelines and Procedures (NGP-2024) and for all downstream private launch / FDI rules in the Indian space sector. It targets lifting India's share of the global space economy from ≈2% to ≈10%.