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

Belgium's first horizontal foreign-direct-investment screening regime, established by a Cooperation Agreement signed on 30 November 2022 between the Federal State and the Flemish, Walloon, Brussels-Capital and German-Community governments, and in force from 1 July 2023. The agreement creates a centralised Interfederal Screening Commission (ISC), chaired by the FPS Economy, to receive and process mandatory ex-ante notifications of foreign acquisitions of 10%, 25% or higher voting-rights / control thresholds (sector-dependent) in Belgian undertakings active in eleven strategic sectors. ISC decisions are binding; sanctions for failure to notify or for non-compliance with conditions imposed include unwinding of the transaction and administrative fines.

Act No. 497/2022 Coll. on the Screening of Foreign Investments and on amendments to certain acts, adopted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 29 November 2022 and promulgated in the Zbierka zákonov on 23 December 2022, established Slovakia's first horizontal ex-ante foreign-direct-investment screening regime. The Act took effect on 1 March 2023, transposing EU Regulation 2019/452 into Slovak law and replacing the prior sector-specific approach under Act No. 45 on critical infrastructure. Screening is administered by the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic across three procedures (mandatory, voluntary, and ex officio) and covers transactions in defence, dual-use, critical infrastructure, critical raw materials, biotechnology, AI, semiconductors and other emerging technologies. The Ministry can prohibit, condition or unwind non-compliant transactions and impose administrative penalties.

The Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169), signed by President Biden on 16 August 2022, contains the largest single package of clean-energy and clean-manufacturing subsidies in US history — Congressional Budget Office scored the energy and climate provisions at $369B over 10 years, with subsequent Treasury / academic estimates reaching $800B-$1.2T as uptake exceeded baseline. Core mechanisms include the Section 30D Clean Vehicle credit ($7,500 per qualifying EV), the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (per-unit credits for domestically-produced battery cells, modules, electrodes, and critical-mineral processing), the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, and the Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Credit. Critically, the law contains Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions barring credit eligibility for vehicles or components linked to entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.

Loi n° 22-18 du 24 juillet 2022 relative à l'investissement (Journal Officiel de la République Algérienne n° 50 du 28 juillet 2022) is Algeria's first comprehensive investment-code overhaul since Ordonnance 01-03 du 20 août 2001 and its 2016 Loi 16-09 amendment. The law replaces the legacy framework, codifies a liberalised FDI regime — retaining 51% Algerian-equity floors only for strategic sectors (hydrocarbons extraction, mining extraction, military/security) — creates the Agence Algérienne de Promotion de l'Investissement (AAPI) as the new single-window FDI-promotion agency and the Conseil National de l'Investissement (CNI) chaired by the Premier Ministre, and defines three investment regimes: Régime des Secteurs, Régime des Zones (Sud + Hauts-Plateaux territorial incentives), and the Régime Structurant for large-scale strategic projects ≥ DZD 2bn (~USD 15M) that attract negotiated multi-pillar fiscal, customs, parafiscal, and social-contribution incentive packages. Eight implementing décrets exécutifs n° 22-296 through 22-303 were published in JORADP n° 60 du 18 septembre 2022, operationalising governance, incentive matrices, the digital Registre National des Investissements, and dispute-resolution architecture.

President Ilham Aliyev signed Presidential Sərəncam (Order) No. 3378 on 22 July 2022 approving the Strategy for the Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2022-2026, operationalising the Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development (February 2021) across five pillars: (1) sustainably growing competitive economy, (2) dynamic inclusive socially just society, (3) competitive human capital and modern innovations, (4) Great Return to liberated territories, and (5) clean environment and green growth. The strategy serves as the master policy chassis for SOCAR's investment programme across upstream (Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Shah Deniz), midstream (Southern Gas Corridor — TANAP + TAP delivering ~12 bcm/year to Europe and Turkiye), and downstream (Heydar Aliyev Baku Refinery, SOCAR Turkiye STAR Refinery, SOCAR Petkim), and anchors the July 2022 EU-Azerbaijan Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy, under which Azerbaijan committed to supply more than 20 bcm/year to Europe by 2027. The strategy also provides the policy foundation for offshore wind and solar agreements with Masdar (UAE) and ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia) under the green-growth pillar, and for the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic-region reconstruction programme following the September 2023 reintegration.

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.

OFAC codified the Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Sanctions Regulations at 31 CFR Part 586, implementing Executive Order 13959 (November 12, 2020) as amended by Executive Order 14032 (June 3, 2021). The regulations prohibit US persons from purchasing or selling publicly traded securities of entities designated on OFAC's Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (NS-CMIC) List, which identifies firms determined to support the People's Liberation Army or Chinese surveillance-technology programs. A divestment deadline of June 3, 2022 applied to entities named in the original EO 13959 annexes; future additions carry a one-year divestment window from the date of designation.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on 8 February 2022 to add 33 persons — all based in China — to the Unverified List (UVL) under EAR §744.15(c), on the basis that BIS could not satisfactorily complete end-use checks for these entities for reasons outside US Government control. Placement on the UVL bars exporters from using any EAR license exception when shipping controlled items to listed parties and requires exporters to obtain a certified UVL Statement from the entity or secure a BIS export licence. Sectors represented include semiconductor manufacturing equipment, optoelectronics, UAVs, specialty chemicals, and biotechnology.