Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Presidential decree signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum and published in the evening edition of the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 23 April 2026, in force 24 April 2026. The decree amends the Tariff of the Ley de los Impuestos Generales de Importación y de Exportación (LIGIE/TIGIE) and the Decreto que establece diversos Programas de Promoción Sectorial (PROSEC), imposing MFN import duties at 5%, 10%, 15%, 25%, 30% or 35% ad valorem on 185 tariff fractions covering chemical products, cosmetics, paper and cardboard, textiles, steel, graphic arts, aluminum manufactures, auto parts, electrical material, bicycles, musical instruments, furniture, wind turbines, and trailers. Goods originating in countries with which Mexico has a free-trade agreement remain eligible for preferential treatment, so practical incidence falls on China and other non-FTA suppliers (Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Taiwan, UAE, South Africa). Paired PROSEC modifications add tariff fractions to Article 5 sections I, II.b and XIX (electrical, electronic, automotive and auto-parts industries) at exempt (EX) rates.

At its 30 December 2025 regular session, Iraq's Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 40% additional duty on medical and industrial oxygen (gaseous and liquid forms), in effect for four years, and a 30% additional duty on imported yogurt (laban rayeb) and liquid milk. Both measures were framed as protecting domestic pharmaceutical/ industrial-gas production and local dairy manufacturing respectively, and take effect 120 days after issuance (29 April 2026) to give importers an adjustment window. Global Trade Alert logs the dairy duty as principally affecting Germany, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye as leading supplier origins, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

On 26 November 2025 Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a package of measures to protect Canada's steel and softwood lumber industries, effective 26 December 2025. For steel, Canada tightened the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) available to countries without a Canada free trade agreement from 50% to 20% of 2024 import levels, and cut the TRQ for FTA partners outside CUSMA (i.e. not the US/Mexico) from 100% to 75% of 2024 levels; imports above quota face a 50% surtax. A new 25% tariff on the full value of listed steel-derivative products (doors, windows, fasteners, structural components and related goods) applies to all countries, covering an estimated CAD 10 billion+ of derivative imports. For softwood lumber, Canada added CAD 500 million to the BDC Softwood Lumber Guarantee Program (bringing it to CAD 1.2 billion) and earmarked a further CAD 500 million under the Large Enterprise Tariff Loan facility for lumber-sector liquidity support.

Decreto 685/2025, signed by President Javier Milei with Chief of Cabinet Guillermo Francos and Economy Minister Luis Caputo, cuts Argentina's Derecho de Exportación (DEX) rate to 0% on 145 meat and live-animal products (98 six-digit NCM codes) — bovine, poultry, porcine, caprine, and ovine — from the previously applicable 5% rate. Published in the Boletín Oficial on 23 September 2025 and effective 24 September, the measure runs through 31 October 2025. Exporters must liquidate at least 90% of foreign-exchange proceeds within three business days of shipping- permit authorization or lose the 0% rate retroactively. Government and press estimates put the anticipated foreign-exchange liquidation impact at USD 800M-1.2B over the window, against an estimated USD 150-200M fiscal cost in foregone export-duty revenue.

Presidential Decree (Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı) No. 10436, published in the Resmi Gazete on 22 September 2025, amends Türkiye's Import Regime Decision and the Additional Customs Duty Decision to standardise additional customs duty on passenger-vehicle imports (HS 8703) from all countries other than the ~24 FTA/customs-union partners (EU member states, South Korea, UK, Qatar and others). Rates are set at 25% or a minimum of USD 6,000/unit for conventional and non-plug-in hybrid vehicles, 30% or a minimum of USD 7,000/unit for plug-in hybrids, and 30% or a minimum of USD 8,500/unit for battery-electric vehicles. The decree enters into force 60 days after publication (21 November 2025), with a 30-day transition window in which declarations registered under the prior (lower or absent) duty regime are grandfathered.

On 15 July 2025 USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer initiated a Section 301 investigation into six categories of Brazilian "acts, policies, and practices" alleged to be unreasonable or discriminatory and to burden US commerce: (1) digital trade and electronic payment services (specifically the Banco Central do Brasil's operation of the Pix instant-payments system, alleged to disadvantage US payment providers); (2) unfair, preferential tariffs (Brazil's preferential tariff treatment for selected partners that excludes US exports); (3) anti-corruption enforcement (alleged interference with US-linked enforcement matters); (4) intellectual property protection (insufficient enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting); (5) ethanol market access (Brazil's reversal of near-zero ethanol tariffs imposed during the 2017-2024 window); and (6) illegal deforestation (the trade-distorting effect of unenforced environmental rules on Brazilian commodity exports). The Federal Register notice (USTR-2025-0043, FR doc 2025-13498) published on 18 July 2025 set written-comment and hearing-request deadlines for 18 August 2025 and a public hearing for 3 September 2025 at the US International Trade Commission. A determination on whether Brazil's practices are actionable, and what remedies (including retaliatory tariffs, withdrawal of trade concessions, or formal WTO action) USTR will pursue, is statutorily due within 12 months of initiation — i.e. by 15 July 2026.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/778 of 14 April 2025, adopted under Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 (the EU enforcement regulation for international trade rights), reinstates the EU's 2018 and 2020 commercial rebalancing measures against the United States and adds new countermeasures in response to the second Trump administration's 10 February 2025 Section 232 proclamations, which restored a universal 25% tariff on steel imports and raised the aluminium tariff to 25% effective 12 March 2025 (filed as 2025-02-11-us-section-232-steel-aluminum-global-tariff-reinstatement). The combined package targets approximately €26 billion of EU imports from the United States — matching the scope of US measures affecting EU exports — and combines the reinstatement of pre-existing duties on a first tranche of products (steel, aluminium, agricultural goods, motorcycles, and other industrial items originally subject to the 2018 and 2020 lists) with new duties on roughly €18 billion of additional US-origin goods spanning poultry, beef, certain seafood, nuts, eggs, dairy, sugar and vegetables on the agricultural side, and steel, aluminium, textiles, leather, appliances, plastics and wood products on the industrial side. Tariff rates layer onto MFN duties at up to 50% for some products, mirroring the structure of the 2018 measures. On the same day the Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/786, which suspends application of Articles 2 and 3 of 2025/778 for 90 days, until 14 July 2025, to allow space for bilateral negotiations following the US 9 April 2025 announcement of a 90-day pause on its own reciprocal-tariff regime (2025-04-02-us-trump-reciprocal-tariff-regime). The legal scaffolding therefore exists and is in force, but no duties were collected during the suspension window. This is the first standalone EU rebalancing instrument adopted against the United States in the second Trump administration and the first major use of Reg 654/2014 since the 2018-2020 Section 232 episode.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement 2025 No. 3 on 9 January 2025, the Final Determination of its Trade and Investment Barrier (TIB) investigation into the European Commission's enforcement practices under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). MOFCOM concluded that EC practices in FSR investigations targeting Chinese enterprises in rail transport, photovoltaics, wind energy, and security-equipment public procurement constitute trade and investment barriers under Article 3 of China's Rules on Trade and Investment Barrier Investigations (对外贸易壁垒调查规则). The determination documents €20.88 billion in estimated economic losses — including €10.18 billion from abandoned bids — and finds de-facto discrimination against Chinese SOEs relative to investors from other jurisdictions. MOFCOM committed to taking "necessary measures" including bilateral consultations, multilateral dispute settlement, or "other appropriate measures" to safeguard Chinese enterprises' legitimate rights and interests.

Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 532, deliberated 10 November 2023 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 22-23 November 2023, re-establishes Brazilian import duties on battery-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid (HEV) passenger vehicles under NCM chapter 8703 after a multi-year zero-tariff exemption. Tariffs phase up on a progressive schedule beginning January 2024 and reaching a uniform 35 % by July 2026 (BEV: 10 %→18 %→25 %→35 %; PHEV: 12 %→20 %→28 %→35 %; HEV: 15 %→25 %→30 %→35 %). The resolution also opens transitional tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) — roughly USD 660 million of EV/hybrid imports plus USD 39 million of electric trucks may enter at zero duty across the 2024-2026 phase-in window — and is operationalised by Portaria SECEX nº 291/2023, which sets the quota allocation rules. The measure is the first re-tariffing of Brazil's auto sector against Chinese EV/hybrid exports since the Inovar-Auto regime ended in 2017.