Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The UK's steel safeguard measure (25% out-of-quota duty) expired 30 June 2026 and was replaced from 1 July 2026 by a new tariff-rate-quota trade measure, announced by the Department for Business and Trade on 19 March 2026. The new measure cuts overall duty-free quota volumes by 51% versus the expired safeguard and raises the out-of-quota tariff to 50% by value, applied across 20 steel product categories. Ukraine-origin steel is exempt; two non-alloy wire commodity codes drop to 0% duty from 1 October 2026.

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.

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.

On 9 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) issued the December 2025 batch expansion of its Mandatory List — a binding instrument requiring government entities, state-owned enterprises, and sub-contractors to source listed products exclusively from Saudi domestic manufacturers meeting the LCGPA-defined local-content threshold. The December 2025 expansion brings the list to approximately 1,444 national products across 16 sectors, effective 1 March 2026, with LCGPA targeting a total of approximately 2,000 products by end-2026. The Mandatory List operationalises the demand-side layer of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 / National Industrial Strategy (NIS) industrial-policy stack, directly restricting foreign-supplier access to Saudi annual government-procurement budgets estimated at SAR 500 billion+ across central government, Aramco, PIF-portfolio entities, Ma'aden, SEC, STC, Saudi Post, and Saudi Railway.

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.

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 European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1063 of 12 May 2026, imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of PET spunbond originating in the People's Republic of China — non-woven needle-punched sheets of polyester filaments, whether or not reinforced by glass fibres, weighing more than 70 g/m2, thickness 0.5-1.8 mm, impregnated with one or more binders, falling under CN codes ex 5603 13 90, 5603 14 20 and ex 5603 14 80. Provisional duties range from 45.6% to 50.0% depending on the exporting producer, entering into force on 14 May 2026 (the day after Official Journal publication) and applying until 13 November 2026, by which date the Commission must decide on definitive measures. The measure follows an investigation initiated on 15 September 2025 (OJ C/2025/5010) pursuant to a complaint lodged on 8 August 2025 by Freudenberg Performance Materials and Johns Manville, alleging that dumped Chinese imports — whose EU market share rose from roughly 0-5% to 15-20% between 2021 and 2024 — caused material injury to Union producers.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10962 on 30 July 2025, imposing a 50% Section 232 tariff on imports of semi-finished copper products (pipes, wires, rods, sheets, tubes, foils) and copper-intensive derivative products (cables, connectors, electrical components, pipe fittings) effective 12:01 a.m. ET on 1 August 2025. The proclamation also authorises the Commerce Secretary to impose a 25% domestic-sales requirement and export controls on high-quality copper scrap, and lays out a phased schedule for refined-copper tariffs (15% from 1 Jan 2027, 30% from 1 Jan 2028) contingent on a Commerce review report due 30 June 2026. Copper input materials (ores, concentrates, cathodes, anodes) and copper scrap itself are exempt from the 50% tariff. The original 90-day "inclusions" process for expanding the derivative list was terminated by a follow-on April 2026 proclamation that consolidated authority with Commerce + USTR.

On 6 February 2026 the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) found that dumped and subsidized imports of cast iron soil pipe from China have caused material injury to the Canadian domestic industry, triggering collection of definitive duties by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Final anti-dumping duties range from 155.5% to 444.2% of export price by exporter (444.2% for all other exporters), and a flat countervailing (subsidy) duty of 28.5% of export price (equivalent to CNY 1,550.44 per metric tonne) applies to all Chinese exporters. CBSA had initiated the dumping and subsidizing investigation on 11 July 2025 following a complaint from Canada Pipe Company ULC, d.b.a. Bibby-Ste-Croix (Sainte-Croix, Québec), and imposed provisional duties from 9 October 2025 pending the final determination and injury finding.

Australia's Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) imposed a provisional anti-subsidy (countervailing) duty on imports of light gauge steel stud and track (LGST) from China, effective 18 June 2026, under Case 679. The investigation — initiated 30 June 2025 (initiation notice ADN 2025/053) following an application from local manufacturer Rondo Building Services Pty Ltd — covers metallic-coated LGST with a profile up to 170mm x 170mm and base metal thickness up to 0.69mm, imported under HS codes 7216.61.00, 7216.69.00, 7308.90.00 and 7216.91.00. A parallel provisional anti-dumping duty investigation on the same product is running on the same case timeline. The Commission's Statement of Essential Facts was delayed to no later than 17 June 2026, with final recommendations to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science expected by 17 August 2026.

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.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), replaces the 2009 Ecodesign Directive with a cross-cutting product-sustainability framework covering nearly all physical goods placed on the EU single market. It empowers the Commission to adopt binding delegated acts setting ecodesign requirements (durability, reparability, recyclability, recycled content, chemical restrictions, energy and resource efficiency) by product category, establishes a mandatory Digital Product Passport (DPP) for supply-chain traceability, and bans the destruction of unsold consumer products. The regulation entered into force on 18 July 2024; the Commission's first ESPR and Energy Labelling Working Plan (2025–2030, COM(2025) 187) was adopted in April 2025, prioritising textiles, furniture, tyres, electronics, and iron/steel/aluminium.

Moldova's Cabinet of Ministers approved Government Decision HG 280/2024 on 17 April 2024, adopting the National Industrial Development Programme 2024-2028 (Programul Național de Dezvoltare Industrială pentru 2024-2028). The programme sets a manufacturing GDP-share target from 8.2% (2023 baseline) to 11.5% by 2028 and at least 25% industrial-production volume growth, with priority given to six sectors: electronics, chemical-pharmaceutical, auto-components, textiles, construction materials, and food industry. It operationalises Moldova's EU-candidacy industrial-alignment commitments under the EU Reform and Growth Facility (€1.9bn 2024-2027 envelope) and the national development strategy European Moldova 2030. A Regional State Aid Scheme for Investments — launched January 2025 under HG 280/2024 — provides grants covering up to 60% (large/medium enterprises) or 75% (small enterprises) of qualifying investments above a MDL 10 million threshold, combined with a 75% income-tax exemption, targeting approximately 150 enterprises with ~€100 million in total state aid through 2034.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 31/2024 on 26 January 2024, establishing the All-Ukrainian Economic Platform "Made in Ukraine" (Зроблено в Україні) as the foundational legal architecture for Ukraine's wartime domestic-industrial-development programme. The decree creates a coordinating body under the President — an advisory council convening the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Economy, Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and State Property Fund — mandated to implement public-procurement preferential margins for Ukrainian-origin goods, administer the eRobota state-grants programme (~UAH 35 bn/year), and establish the National Cashback programme rewarding consumers for purchasing domestic goods via the Diia state-digital platform. The instrument is the statutory parent for the cluster of wartime localisation and industrial-preference measures operationalised through subsequent Cabinet Resolutions and Verkhovna Rada legislation.

Colombia's National Mining Agency (ANM) issued Resolution 1006 of November 30, 2023, formally designating 17 mineral groups as "strategic" for the country under the authority of Law 1753/2015 Article 20. The designated list — Cu, Ni, Zn, platinum group elements, Fe, Mn, metallurgical coal, phosphates, Mg, Al, Au, emeralds, construction materials, silica sands, limestone, gypsum, and Cr — enables ANM to declare Strategic Mining Reserve Areas (AME) and organise special licensing rounds under preferential procedures. The resolution reframes Colombia's mineral priorities around energy transition, food security, reindustrialisation, and public infrastructure rather than the prior coal/precious-metals export emphasis.

On 21 April 2022 the UK announced import bans on Russian silver, wood products and other high-value goods (incl. caviar), alongside a 35-point tariff increase on selected Russian and Belarusian goods. The ban was legislated by the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 10) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/689, made 20 June, in force 23 June 2022), which inserted a new Schedule 3D ("revenue generating goods") and prohibitions 46T-46W: import of Schedule 3D goods originating in or consigned from Russia, their acquisition, supply/delivery into the UK and related technical assistance are prohibited, subject to Part 7 exceptions and licences. Schedule 3D covers all of HS chapter 44 (wood and articles of wood; wood charcoal), HS 7106 silver, plus e.g. caviar, cement, potassium chloride and NPK fertilisers, pulp and kraft paper, glass, and aluminium plate.

On 16 March 2022 the Swiss Federal Council adopted a total revision of the Ordinance on Measures against Belarus (SR 946.231.116.9), aligning Switzerland's autonomous sanctions with the EU's Belarus regime. It bans imports of Belarusian petroleum products, potassium chloride ("potash"), wood, iron and steel, and cement and rubber products; bans exports of goods used to manufacture or process tobacco products, weapons, surveillance equipment, and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development; and imposes financial sanctions including a ban on public financing for trade with or investment in Belarus, restrictions on securities/loans/ deposits, a prohibition on transactions with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and exclusion of listed Belarusian banks from SWIFT. The ordinance entered into force on the day it was adopted.

On 2 March 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2022/355, amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus. It bans importing, purchasing or transporting products originating in or exported from Belarus in wood (Annex X), cement (Annex XI), iron and steel (Annex XII) and rubber (Annex XIII), and extends restrictions to potassium chloride ("potash"), tobacco and mineral products, plus a ban on exporting dual-use goods, machinery (Annex XIV) and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development. The measure responds to Belarus's active facilitation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It entered into force the day after publication in the Official Journal (OJ L 67, 2 March 2022), i.e. 3 March 2022, with a wind-down period to 4 June 2022 for pre-existing contracts.