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Décret n° 2023-1293 of 28 December 2023 and the accompanying Arrêté of the same date amend France's foreign-investment control regime (Code monétaire et financier, Art. R.151-3 list of sectors requiring prior authorisation). They add activities of extraction, transformation and recycling of critical raw materials, and activities essential to the security of penitentiary establishments, to the controlled sectors; make permanent the control on crossing the 10% voting-rights threshold in listed companies by non-European investors; and extend control to takeovers of French branches of foreign entities carrying out a sensitive activity. The changes entered into force on 1 January 2024.

On 28 December 2023 the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved Resolution No. 1221 (Adilet ID P2300001221) adopting the Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the Rare and Rare-Earth Metals Industry for 2024-2028. The plan is the umbrella industrial- policy instrument for Kazakhstan's critical-minerals sector and was developed to fulfil the priorities set out in President Tokayev's 1 September 2023 Address to the Nation ("Economic Course of Fair Kazakhstan"). The plan is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development (MIID) and brings together the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, Tau-Ken Samruk JSC, the Bank for Development of Kazakhstan (BDK) and KAZNEDRA (the geological-information operator). It identifies four sectoral problems — low geological-exploration coverage, weak commercial exploitation of technogenic mineral formations (mine tailings / slags), depreciated enterprise capital, and an underdeveloped regulatory framework — and pledges roughly USD 25m of state seed-investment to attract foreign direct investment, targets a 40% increase in production volume of rare and rare-earth metals by 2028, and commits to launch at least five new production facilities (including modernisation of the Zhezkazganredmet RSE workshop). It is paired with the launch of the public mineral.gov.kz geological-information portal as part of the government's broader subsoil-use digitisation programme.

Switzerland's Federal Council promulgated the Verordnung über die Mindestbesteuerung grosser Unternehmensgruppen (Mindestbesteuerungsverordnung, MindStV; French: OIMin), SR 642.161, AS 2023 841, on 22 December 2023, with effect from 1 January 2024. The ordinance enacts a 15% Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT — Ergänzungssteuer) on Swiss constituent entities of MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million, enacted under the temporary constitutional authority granted by Swiss voters in a popular referendum on 18 June 2023 (78.5% yes, Art. 129a BV). The Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR) were deliberately deferred to subsequent ordinance amendments, targeting FY 2025 phasing. The Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV / AFC) is the administering authority; first QDMTT returns and GloBE Information Returns due 30 June 2026.

Tunisia's Finance Law for 2024 (Loi Nº 2023-52, promulgated 22 December 2023) introduces a 4-year full exemption from corporate income tax (IS) and personal income tax (IR) for newly created enterprises that obtain an investment declaration certificate during 2024 or 2025. Qualifying enterprises must commence effective operations within 2 years of the declaration date and maintain Tunisian-standard accounts; excluded sectors include financial services, conventional energy, mining, real-estate promotion, commerce, and telecoms operators. The measure is Tunisia's principal post-Loi 2016-71 targeted investment-attraction instrument and opens the IPTM register's first Tunisia-issuer action, closing a full-geographic blank in MENA/Maghreb coverage.

FinCEN published the Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards Final Rule (FR Doc 2023-27973, 88 FR 88732, December 22, 2023; effective February 20, 2024), implementing the access and disclosure provisions of Section 6403(c) of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) enacted as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. The rule defines six categories of authorized recipients permitted to access the FinCEN BOI database — US federal agencies engaged in national security/intelligence/law enforcement, state/local/tribal law enforcement, foreign law enforcement and competent authorities (via intermediary federal agency), financial institutions using BOI for customer due diligence (CDD), federal functional regulators assessing financial-institution CDD compliance, and Treasury officers/employees. Access is to be phased in, beginning with a 2024 pilot for key federal agencies before extending to financial institutions and their supervisors. The rule establishes data-security standards, re-disclosure prohibitions, and oversight mechanisms governing each recipient category.

Signed by President Javier Milei and the entire cabinet on 20 December 2023 and published in the Boletín Oficial extraordinario on 21 December 2023, Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 70/2023 declares a public emergency across economic, financial, fiscal, administrative, pension, tariff, sanitary, and social matters until 31 December 2025 (Article 1) and enacts 366 articles across 16 titles that fundamentally restructure Argentina's regulatory framework. The DNU repeals or amends dozens of statutes to deregulate foreign trade (repealing the Compre Nacional buy-preference law Ley 18.875 and the price-control framework Ley 27.345), opens privatisation of state enterprises (Aerolíneas Argentinas, ENARSA, Banco Nación, Correo Argentino, Trenes Argentinos), dismantles the Ley de Abastecimiento price-control regime, liberalises civil aviation cabotage to foreign carriers, deregulates hydrocarbons export and mining permitting, and replaces the severance-pay regime with a capitalisation-fund system. It is the foundational enabling framework for all subsequent Milei-administration deregulatory instruments filed on the IPTM register, including RIGI (Law 27.742), Decreto 38/2025, Decreto 449/2025, and Decreto 563/2025.

Regulation (EU) 2023/2842, published in the Official Journal on 20 December 2023, is the first comprehensive recast of the EU fisheries control framework since Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, and amends the IUU Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 alongside five sectoral regulations (1967/2006, 2016/1139, 2017/2403, 2019/473). Effective in phases from 10 January 2026, it mandates the CATCH electronic catch-certification IT system for ALL imports of wild-capture marine fishery products into the EU single market, replacing legacy paper catch certificates. It also introduces Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) with CCTV on high-risk EU vessels ≥18 m, full electronic reporting for all vessels by 2028, and extended Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) coverage down to vessels ≥12 m. The regulation tightens the carding regime (red/yellow cards for non-cooperating flag states under the amended IUU Regulation) and requires digital traceability end-to-end through the supply chain, raising compliance cost and market-access barriers for all non-EU seafood exporters.

President Paul Biya signed Loi n°2023/014 on 19 December 2023, replacing the 2016 mining code (Loi n°2016/017) and significantly enlarging state control over Cameroon's mineral sector. The law vests SONAMINES (Société Nationale des Mines) with an exclusive statutory monopoly over the purchase and commercialisation of gold and diamonds nationwide, mandates a 10% non-dilutable free-carry equity stake for the state in all mining enterprises, and introduces a production-sharing mechanism (1–5% of finished product for precious substances; 2–15% of raw ore for others) layered on top of revised ad valorem royalties (5% for precious metals, 3% for base metals, 10% for radioactive substances). The code provides the legal framework for SONAMINES-led reindustrialisation of large iron-ore and bauxite projects, including Mbalam-Nabeba and Minim-Martap.

On 19 December 2023, the Thai Cabinet endorsed the second phase of the national electric-vehicle support programme ("EV 3.5") covering 2024-2027, following its approval by the National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee. The Excise Department published the implementing Notification on 28 December 2023; the regime entered into force on 1 January 2024. EV 3.5 combines (i) per-vehicle purchase subsidies of THB 50,000-100,000 for battery-electric passenger cars and pick-ups, (ii) a reduction in excise duty on BEV passenger cars priced ≤ THB 7 million from 8% to 2%, and (iii) up to 40% import-duty relief on Completely Built-Up (CBU) BEV passenger cars priced ≤ THB 2 million during 2024-2025. Participating OEMs must offset CBU imports with domestic Thai production at a 1:2 ratio by end-2026 and 1:3 by end-2027, or face clawback of the granted incentives. The package is the operational successor to EV 3.0 (2022-2023) and was designed to lock in the wave of Chinese-OEM gigafactory and assembly investment that EV 3.0 attracted (BYD Rayong, MG/SAIC, GAC AION, Great Wall Motor, NETA, Changan, Chery). By the August 2025 EV-Board meeting Thailand had logged > THB 137 billion in approved EV-supply-chain investment under the combined EV 3.0 + EV 3.5 envelope. EV 3.5 is the central instrument in Thailand's "EV Hub of ASEAN" industrial strategy and the principal regional competitor to Indonesia's nickel-anchored EV-cluster bid and Vietnam's Decree 182 investment-support fund.

The Council of the EU adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2878 of 18 December 2023, the EU's 12th sanctions package against Russia, entering into force 19 December 2023. The package introduces a direct EU import ban on Russian non-industrial natural and synthetic diamonds and diamond jewellery effective 1 January 2024, followed by a phased indirect ban on Russian diamonds processed in third countries (from 1 March 2024, complete by 1 September 2024), developed as part of a G7-coordinated diamond restriction. The package also extends import bans on steel and other products generating significant revenue for Russia, and adds further trade and economic restrictions.

The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1364) amend the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 to prohibit UK persons from acquiring, importing, supplying or delivering listed Russian-origin metals and metal articles, delivering the Prime Minister's commitment to ban Russian copper, nickel and aluminium. Per law-firm summaries the list (a new Schedule 3BA) also covers lead, zinc, tin, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, magnesium, cobalt, antimony, manganese and further metals, and most provisions took effect on 15 December 2023 with a grace period for cargoes consigned before that date.

Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data — the "Data Act" — was published in the Official Journal on 22 December 2023, entered into force on 11 January 2024, and applies generally from 12 September 2025 (with longer transitional periods for IoT product-design obligations under Article 3(1), which apply to products placed on the market after 12 September 2026, and for the data-portability standardisation framework, applicable from 12 September 2027). The Data Act is the third pillar of the EU data-economy framework alongside the GDPR (personal data) and the Data Governance Act 2022/868 (data-intermediation services), and is the world's first horizontal statutory regime governing access to and portability of industrial / IoT / non-personal data — covering by-design data-availability obligations on connected-product manufacturers, a mandatory cloud- switching framework with progressive elimination of switching charges, B2G emergency data-sharing in exceptional needs, unfair-contract-terms protection for SMEs, and safeguards against unlawful international government access to non-personal data held in EU cloud.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 42 entities under 44 entries to the Entity List, effective December 7, 2023. The majority — 28 entities in Russia — are sanctioned for procuring or contracting on behalf of Russia's defense sector, including avionics, military-grade drones, and military electronics. Fourteen additional entities across Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, China, and the UAE were added for operating diversion and transshipment networks that supply U.S.-origin items to Russian military end-users. All listed entities face a license requirement for all EAR-controlled items with a presumption of denial.

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 29 November 2023 the Vietnamese National Assembly adopted Resolution 107/2023/QH15, enacting GloBE/Pillar Two rules into Vietnamese law effective for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024. The measure introduces a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) and an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) at a 15% minimum effective tax rate for MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million, placing Vietnam among the first South-East Asian jurisdictions to bind the OECD Inclusive Framework floor into statute. Subordinate Decree 236/2025/NĐ-CP (29 August 2025) provides the computational mechanics for the first top-up-tax filings covering fiscal year 2024.

The Pleno of Panama's Supreme Court of Justice unanimously declared Law 406 of 20 October 2023 — which ratified the renewed mining-concession contract between the Panamanian State and Minera Panamá S.A. (a subsidiary of Canada's First Quantum Minerals) — unconstitutional in its entirety. The ruling, delivered 27 November 2023 and published in Gaceta Oficial No. 29922 on 2 December 2023, found violations of 25 constitutional articles and ordered the orderly closure of the Cobre Panamá open-pit copper mine, which had produced ~350,000 t/yr of copper (~1% of global mined supply) and accounted for ~5% of Panama's GDP. The decision triggered a de-facto Panama-wide moratorium on new large-scale metals concessions and pending ICSID arbitration claims by First Quantum and Korea Resources / KORES (COFINPRO).

Regulation (EU) 2023/2675 — the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) — is the EU's first horizontal trade-defence framework explicitly empowering the Union to respond to economic coercion by third countries. Adopted by the European Parliament and Council on 22 November 2023, published in the Official Journal on 7 December 2023, and in force from 27 December 2023, it lets the European Commission (i) determine that a third country is applying economic coercion against the Union or a Member State, (ii) seek dialogue, cessation, and reparation, and (iii) impose Union response measures — including tariffs, services-trade restrictions, IP-rights restrictions, public-procurement restrictions, and FDI restrictions targeting nationals or controlled entities of the coercing state. It complements but does not duplicate the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (which addresses subsidies, not coercion).

On 22 March 2024, MMG Limited (67%-owned by state-owned China Minmetals Corporation) completed its USD 1.875 billion acquisition of Cuprous Capital, parent company of the Khoemacau Copper Mine in Botswana's Kalahari Copperbelt, from Cupric Canyon Capital and other private shareholders. The deal was announced 22 November 2023 and is the largest overseas copper-mine acquisition by a Chinese company since 2018 and the largest Chinese investment in Botswana to date. Khoemacau has a mineral resource base of ~450 Mt at 1.4% copper grade, an initial 27-year mine life, and produces close to 60,000 t/yr of copper plus ~2 million oz/yr of silver.

The Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations by adding four entities under nine entries to the Entity List, effective November 21, 2023 (FR Doc. 2023-25684). Three entities — Aerofalcon S.L. (Spain), Novax Group S.A. (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Russia, Venezuela), and Zero Waste Global SA (Panama, Venezuela) — were listed for circumventing US sanctions by supplying Nicolás Maduro's government with US-origin aircraft parts using fraudulent export documentation. A fourth entity, Si2 Microsystems Private Limited (India), was listed for supplying Russian defense-sector consignees with US-origin integrated circuits in violation of Section 746.5(a)(1)(ii) Russia/Belarus export restrictions. All entities are subject to a license requirement for all EAR items with a presumption of denial.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reached a $968,618,825 settlement with Binance Holdings, Ltd. — a Cayman Islands–domiciled virtual-currency exchange — to resolve civil liability for 1,667,153 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs (Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea region of Ukraine) committed between August 2017 and October 2022. OFAC determined the apparent violations were not voluntarily self-disclosed and that Binance's conduct was egregious; the settlement requires a five-year independent compliance monitor and was announced concurrently with parallel DOJ, FinCEN, and CFTC resolutions totaling approximately $4.3 billion in aggregate (including criminal forfeiture and BSA/AML penalties), alongside a separate criminal plea by founder Changpeng Zhao. The settlement is the largest civil monetary penalty in OFAC's history.

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.

Panama's Asamblea Nacional enacted Ley 407 on 3 November 2023, sanctioned by President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen and published in Gaceta Oficial Digital N° 29904 of the same date. The law declares an indefinite moratorium on the granting of concessions for exploration, extraction, transportation, and benefit of metallic mining throughout national territory under the precautionary principle, bars the Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias (MICI) from issuing any new concessions and requires flat rejection of all pending applications from the date of enactment. Ley 407 constitutes the legislative instrument in the paired judicial-legislative architecture under which Panama effectively exits large-scale metals mining: it operates as the prospective, horizontal concession ban, while the Corte Suprema's November 2023 Sentencia (filed separately) is the retrospective judicial nullification of the Cobre Panamá contract. Together they structurally withdraw ~1% of global mined copper supply and affect ~5% of Panama's GDP.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added thirteen entities to the Entity List effective November 2, 2023 — twelve in Russia and one in Uzbekistan — for posing a significant risk of supporting Russia's war against Ukraine through the procurement, development, and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The designated group includes ZALA Aero Group, the Kalashnikov Concern-linked maker of the Lancet loitering munition and Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone. A license requirement now applies to all items subject to the EAR exported, reexported, or transferred to these parties, with a license review policy of denial for everything except food and medicine designated EAR99 (case-by-case), and the Russia/Belarus Military End User Foreign Direct Product rule applies.

Ireland's Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (Act No. 28 of 2023), signed into law on 31 October 2023 and commenced on 6 January 2025 via S.I. No. 651 of 2024, establishes Ireland's first-ever mandatory inbound FDI screening regime. The Act empowers the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to assess, condition, or prohibit transactions by third-country investors (non-EU/EEA/Switzerland) exceeding a EUR 2 million cumulative threshold in targets operating across critical infrastructure, critical technologies, dual-use items, supply of critical inputs, sensitive personal data, and media freedom. A 90-day standstill period applies during Ministerial determination, with criminal sanctions and transaction-voiding powers available for non-compliance.

On 25 October 2023 the Bureau of Industry and Security published an interim final rule (88 FR 73424; FR Doc 2023-23055) making substantive revisions to the October 7 2022 advanced-computing IFR, incorporating 43 public comments covering 78 topics. The rule replaced the prior TOPS-based performance metric with a new "Total Processing Performance" (TPP) / performance-density dual-threshold structure for ECCN 3A090, splitting the control into tiers 3A090.a (full licence requirement for highest-capability datacenter AI chips) and 3A090.b (new License Exception NAC with 25-day prior notification for the intermediate tier). Geographic scope was expanded from China-and-Macau to Country Groups D:1/D:4/D:5 to block diversion via third-country intermediaries and offshore datacenters.

On 23 October 2023 Manono Lithium SAS — a joint venture between Zijin Mining's overseas subsidiary Jinxiang Lithium Limited (~55% stake) and the DRC state-owned entity COMINIERE (~35-39%) — secured the exploration licence for the northeast block of the Manono Lithium Project (formerly disputed PR 13359-NE) after Congolese courts returned full title to COMINIERE, which then invited Zijin to jointly develop it. A mining licence was granted in September 2024, and Zijin commissioned initial lithium production at the site in June 2026, targeting approximately 120,000 t/yr LCE in 2026 and up to 270,000–320,000 t/yr at full capacity. Manono NE is now among the world's largest lithium mines under Chinese operational control, deepening China's existing hold over DRC critical-mineral output (CMOC cobalt/copper, CNMC/Sinohydro copper) and establishing the DRC as a top-tier lithium producer inside the Chinese supply-chain sphere.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly announced (Announcement No. 33 of 2023) export-licensing controls on graphite products, effective 1 December 2023. The regime covers natural flake graphite and products thereof (including spherical graphite and graphite powder used in lithium-ion battery anodes) as well as high-purity, high-hardness, and high-strength synthetic graphite materials. Exporters must obtain dual-use-item licences from MOFCOM citing end-user and end-use; licences are granted at MOFCOM's discretion. The announcement came three days after the 17 October 2023 BIS advanced-chip-controls expansion, continuing the proportional-response pattern established with Ga/Ge in July.

In October 2023 Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) formally presented a National Mining Sector Strategy 2023-2033, accompanied by an Implementation Roadmap; the Council of Ministers Cabinet-approved and publicly launched the package in April 2024. The strategy sets headline targets of tripling mining-sector GDP from approximately JD 700 million to JD 2.1 billion and doubling mining exports from JD 1.2 billion to JD 3.5 billion by 2033. Policy instruments include a streamlined exploration-to-exploitation licensing regime under the Natural Resources Law (Law No. 12 of 1968 as amended), transparent royalty and community-benefit-sharing provisions, and catalytic foreign and domestic investment in phosphate (via state-majority Jordan Phosphate Mines Company — JPMC, a top-5 global exporter), potash (Arab Potash Company — APC, Dead Sea brine extraction), Wadi Araba copper prospects, REE deposits (MEMR exploration surveys), Central Jordan Uranium Project, and oil-shale resources, positioning Jordan as an upstream critical-minerals and fertilizer-feedstock supplier for India, China, Brazil, EU, and US offtake markets.

On 18 October 2023 the Governor in Council registered Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations (SOR/2023-220) under the Special Economic Measures Act, citing Iran's proliferation- sensitive nuclear activities and weapons-of-mass-destruction-related programme as a grave breach of international peace and security. The amendment prohibits Canadians and Canadian entities from exporting, selling or supplying to Iran dual-use goods and technology, conventional arms (battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large-calibre artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships), Missile Technology Control Regime-listed equipment, and technical data related to ballistic missiles and nuclear-weapon delivery systems; it also bars importing arms and related material from Iran. The same instrument adds 156 entities and 18 individuals to Canada's Iran sanctions list (asset freeze / dealings prohibition).

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued an interim final rule on 17 October 2023 that substantially expanded the advanced-computing and semiconductor manufacturing controls first imposed in October 2022. The rule closed the performance-threshold workaround that NVIDIA had used to ship China-specific A800/H800 GPUs, replacing it with a "performance density" metric and adding a new "Notified Advanced Computing" licence category. It expanded controls on chipmaking equipment (additional ECCNs covering deposition, etch, metrology), pulled 21 additional countries (mostly Middle East / Central Asia) into a regional licensing scheme to prevent transshipment, and added 13 Chinese entities to the Entity List including AI-chip designers.

The Mining (New Porgera) (Amendment) Act 2023 (Act No. 16 of 2023), passed by Papua New Guinea's National Parliament on 29 November 2023 and certified 30 November 2023, created the statutory framework enabling the Porgera gold mine to reopen under the New Porgera Ltd joint venture — with PNG state and local stakeholders holding 51% and Barrick Gold 49%. The Act formalised four agreements signed on 13 October 2023 (Mining Development Contract, Special Mining Lease 13, Fiscal Stability Agreement, and Landowner Compensation Escrow), allowing the mine to resume operations on 22 December 2023 after a 2020 closure when the Marape government refused to renew Barrick Niugini Limited's prior special mining lease. This 51% state-and-community majority template now governs the legal architecture for all future PNG resource concessions.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 49 entities under 52 entries to the Entity List, effective October 11, 2023. The bulk of additions — 42 of 49 — are Chinese entities determined to be acting contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests, predominantly for supplying US-origin integrated circuits to Russian defense-sector consignees after March 1, 2023 in violation of export controls. Remaining entities span Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, UAE, and the United Kingdom and were designated on similar Russia-diversion or end-use violation grounds. All listed parties face a license requirement for all EAR-subject items, reviewed under a presumption of denial.

BIS added 28 entities to the EAR Entity List across seven countries, targeting four distinct threat clusters: a Russia GRU/UAV diversion network spanning China, Finland, Germany, and Russia; an Iran Shahed-series UAV procurement chain operating through Chinese front companies (designated under the Russia/Belarus Military End User FDP Rule); Pakistan-linked suppliers procuring for unsafeguarded nuclear activities; and two Oman-based entities supporting Yemen's Houthi forces. Russia's dominant titanium producer VSMPO-AVISMA was also added as a military end user. One Chinese entity (Zhejiang Perfect New Material) was simultaneously removed from the Military End User List.

Sweden's first horizontal foreign-direct-investment screening regime. Lag (2023:560) om granskning av utländska direktinvesteringar — promulgated (utfärdad) by the Ministry of Justice on 21 September 2023 on the basis of Government Bill 2022/23:116, and entered into force on 1 December 2023 — establishes mandatory ex-ante notification to Inspektionen för strategiska produkter (ISP) for direct or indirect acquisitions of voting rights of ≥10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 65%, or 90% in Swedish entities conducting "skyddsvärd verksamhet" (protected business activities). The protected-activity perimeter is defined by Förordning (2023:624) and the ISP listing across seven sub-categories: essential services, security-sensitive activities, critical raw materials/metals/ minerals, sensitive location and personal data, military equipment, dual-use goods, and emerging or strategically protected technologies. Both EU and non-EU investors are within scope. Unnotified transactions are void by operation of law and may carry administrative fines of SEK 25,000 to SEK 100 million. From 1 Dec 2023 to 29 Nov 2024 ISP processed 1,206 notifications, opened 24 deeper screenings, approved 11, approved 5 with conditions, and prohibited 1 transaction.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1781, published in the Official Journal on 18 September 2023 and in force from 8 October 2023, establishes the EU Chips Act: a three-pillar framework targeting 20% of global semiconductor production by 2030 (up from approximately 9% in 2022) by mobilising EUR 43bn in public and private investment. Pillar 1 (Chips for Europe Initiative, EUR 3.3bn committed from EU budget) funds R&D, pilot production lines, and design infrastructure. Pillar 2 creates a fast-track permitting regime for "Integrated Production Facilities" (IPFs) and "Open EU Foundries" (OEFs) that qualify as being in the Union's interest. Pillar 3 establishes a supply-chain monitoring mechanism and grants the Commission power to mandate priority orders from designated facilities during a declared semiconductor crisis.

Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), issued under Royal Decree M/19 (16 September 2021) and substantively amended by Royal Decree M/148 (27 March 2023), entered into force on 14 September 2023 with a one-year transition period that ended on 14 September 2024 — at which point the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) became the binding regulator with full enforcement powers. Alongside the Implementing Regulations and the Regulations on the Transfer of Personal Data Outside the Kingdom (both issued 7 September 2023), SDAIA published in 2024 a set of four pre-approved Standard Contractual Clauses templates (C2C, C2P, P2P, P2C) governing cross-border transfers. The regime establishes consent requirements, DPO appointment, a 72-hour breach notification duty, and prior-clearance / SCC-or-BCR-style conditions on personal-data exports out of Saudi Arabia.

Mexico's Secretaría de Economía published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 13 September 2023 the final resolution of the administrative sunset review (examen de vigencia) of compensatory (anti-dumping) duties on imports of coated flat steel (aceros planos recubiertos — metallic and/or non-metallic coated carbon and alloy flat products) originating from the People's Republic of China and Chinese Taipei, regardless of country of origin. The resolution confirms that revoking the duties would likely lead to continued or resumed dumping, and therefore extends them for a further five years. Duty rates range from 22.22 % (Baoshan) to 76.33 % (all other Chinese exporters) and from 22.26 % (CSC) to 52.57 % (other Taiwanese exporters).

Malaysia's New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030) is the fourth-edition national industrial master plan launched on 1 September 2023 by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim under the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI). Spanning seven years to 2030, NIMP 2030 adopts a mission-based approach with 4 missions, 21 strategies and 62 action plans, mobilising an RM95bn investment envelope (predominantly private-sector capital channelled through private equity and the capital markets). The plan targets a step-change in manufacturing-sector economic complexity, deeper local-industry linkages and expanded participation in global supply chains, with explicit numerical targets for the manufacturing sector's GDP contribution and annual growth by 2030.

Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr. Dele Alake unveiled a Seven-Point Agenda in September 2023 to transform Nigeria's solid-minerals sector — later operationalised as the Energy Transition and Critical Minerals (ETCM) Roadmap framework. The agenda mandates joint ventures between mining multinationals and Nigerian partners, formalises artisanal miners, establishes the Mines Surveillance Task Force, audits all mining licences, builds big-data inventories on seven priority minerals, and authorises six domestic Mineral Processing Centres. In 2024 President Tinubu directed that mining licences be issued only to firms that build in-country processing capacity — effectively banning raw-ore export of lithium and other critical minerals — and the Federal Government revoked 924 dormant licences in April 2024. It is the first Nigerian framework explicitly tying raw-mineral export curbs to downstream-processing mandates, paralleling Indonesia hilirisasi, DRC ARECOMS and Zimbabwe lithium- concentrate regimes.

The European Commission approved a Hungarian horizontal state-aid framework scheme of approximately EUR 2.36 billion (HUF 920 billion equivalent) under Section 2.8 of the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF, adopted 9 March 2023) to support accelerated investments in strategic net-zero sectors: batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCS equipment, key components for each, and the production or recovery of related critical raw materials. Aid is provided in the form of direct grants, tax advantages, and refundable advances; all aid must be granted before 31 December 2025. The scheme is the principal state-aid architecture through which Hungary has channelled Chinese and Korean battery/EV-supply- chain FDI into its emerging Debrecen–Szeged–Göd-Nyíregyháza industrial cluster, and is the parent umbrella under which individual large-scale aid decisions for CATL Debrecen, BYD Szeged, EVE Power Debrecen, Samsung SDI Göd, Sunwoda Nyíregyháza, and EcoPro BM have been or will be assessed.

Loi n° 2023-040 of 29 August 2023, adopted by the Conseil National de Transition (CNT) and promulgated by the Président de la Transition Colonel Assimi Goïta, repeals and replaces the prior Mali Code Minier (Ordonnance n° 2019-022/P-RM du 27 septembre 2019) and constitutes the foundational mining statute for all mineral-title issuance, foreign-investment participation, fiscal architecture, and state-control mechanisms in the Republic of Mali. Key structural innovations include a 35% Malian-side equity floor (10% free-carry to the state + 20% paid- participation option + 5% reserved to local Malian private investors), a special permitting regime for substances minérales d'intérêt stratégique (lithium, uranium, thorium, tungsten, tantalite, cobalt, and rare-earth elements), and zones d'intérêt stratégique reserved for the state and state-controlled vehicles. The Code is the parent statute under which Décret n° 2024-0396/PT-RM (the 2024 implementing decree) and Loi n° 2023-041 (the companion local-content law) operate, and under which the Barrick Loulo-Gounkoto standoff, B2Gold Fekola renegotiation, Allied Gold Sadiola settlement, and Ganfeng Goulamina fiscal escalation are situated.

Loi n° 2023-041 of 29 August 2023 establishes Mali's mandatory local-content framework for the mining sector, requiring titulaires de permis miniers and their sub-contractors to prioritise Malian nationals, local communities, national enterprises, and locally produced goods and services in the procurement and execution of all mining activities. The law mandates three-year renewable procurement plans with cascading preference from Malian citizens to ECOWAS citizens to others, and imposes capacity-building, training, and technology-transfer obligations on licence-holders. It is the procurement-side companion statute to the simultaneously adopted Code Minier (Loi 2023-040), operating under its own implementing decree Décret 2024-0397/PT-RM (July 2024).

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a determination pursuant to Section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order 14014 identifying the jet fuel sector of the Burmese economy as a sanctions-eligible sector. The determination means that foreign persons who operate in Burma's jet fuel sector — including activities related to importation, exportation, reexportation, sale, supply, or transport of jet fuel in or involving Burma — may be designated and sanctioned by OFAC. Issued on the OFAC website on August 23, 2023 and formally published in the Federal Register on September 25, 2023 (FR Doc 2023-20713), the action was accompanied by concurrent SDN designations targeting key figures in the SAC junta's jet-fuel supply network.

On 16 August 2023 the Swiss Federal Council amended the Ordinance of 4 March 2022 on Measures in Connection with the Situation in Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72), aligning with the EU's 11th Russia sanctions package. The amendment adds two UAE-headquartered firms to the list of entities barred from exemptions to Switzerland's dual-use export ban on Russia, restricts the sale of securities issued after 6 August 2023 to Russian nationals, residents, entities and businesses regardless of currency, and adds 12 individuals and 87 entities to the asset-freeze list, targeting dual-use/military-tech exporters, FSB-licensed IT firms, propagandists and government officials. It entered into force the same day at 18:00 CEST.

Effective August 11, 2023, BIS amended 15 CFR Parts 738 and 742 to add the People's Republic of China and Macau to Nuclear Nonproliferation (NP2) licensing requirements under the Export Administration Regulations. The rule inserts NP2 "X" column markings for China and Macau in the Commerce Country Chart, subjecting exports of eight ECCN families (1A290, 1C298, 2A290, 2A291, 2D290, 2E001, 2E002, 2E290) to a BIS licence requirement. The measure was motivated by China's military modernisation, military-civil fusion strategy, and nuclear force expansion; prior to this rule, neither China nor Macau was subject to NP2 controls in the EAR.

Chile enacted Ley No. 21.591 on 10 August 2023, establishing a two-component progressive mining royalty on large-scale copper producers with annual sales of 50,000 or more metric tons of fine copper (TMCF): a 1% ad valorem charge on annual copper sales, plus a progressive operating-margin component (RIOMA) at 8–26% of adjusted taxable mining operating income. The combined tax burden is capped at 46.5% of adjusted pre-tax earnings (45.5% for producers below 80,000 TMCF). The royalty entered force on 1 January 2024 and represents the first copper-taxation reform in Chile in over two decades, directly re-pricing output from BHP Escondida, Codelco, Antofagasta Minerals, and Anglo American operations — together accounting for a majority of Chile's ~5.3 Mt/year copper output.

Decree-Law No. 104 of 10 August 2023 ("Decreto Asset" / Omnibus Decree, GU n.186 of 10 Aug 2023, in force 11 Aug 2023) was converted with amendments into Law No. 136 of 9 October 2023 (GU n.236 of 9 Oct 2023). The conversion law materially expanded Italy's "Golden Power" foreign-direct-investment screening regime (DL 21/2012). Two key extensions: (i) intra-group transactions involving entities outside the EU are no longer exempt from the exercise of special powers — only the prior notification carve-out was preserved; (ii) acts, resolutions and operations concerning intellectual-property rights in artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, cybersecurity, aerospace, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies, and food production technologies fall within scope when one or more counter-parties sit outside the EU. The Prime Minister also obtained an explicit veto power over transactions creating "exceptional situations" not already covered by sectoral or EU prudential / merger rules, including those touching qualifying holdings in the financial sector.

On 9 August 2023 the German Federal Cabinet adopted the government draft Wirtschaftsplan 2024 of the Climate and Transformation Fund (Klima- und Transformationsfonds, KTF) and the accompanying 2024–2027 financial plan. The plan envisaged ca. EUR 211.8 bn of programme spending across 2024–2027 (EUR 57.6 bn in 2024 alone), funded by national and European emissions-trading revenues plus federal grants, with major lines for semiconductor production (~EUR 4.0 bn in 2024), hydrogen industry build-out (~EUR 3.8 bn), building renovation (~EUR 18.9 bn), EEG renewables support (~EUR 12.6 bn) and electric mobility. The KTF is the principal German federal vehicle for co-financing the EU Chips Act state-aid envelope, IPCEI Hydrogen, decarbonisation contracts (Klimaschutzverträge) and other net-zero-aligned industrial-policy subsidies.

Pakistan's Cabinet Committee on Energy approved the Oil Refining Policy 2023 for Upgradation of Existing/Brownfield Refineries on 7 August 2023, with Federal Cabinet ratification on 9 August 2023 and Petroleum Division notification to OGRA and refineries shortly thereafter. The policy provides a 7.5% deemed-duty incentive on locally-refined motor spirit (petrol) and high-speed diesel (with an additional 2.5% incremental incentive on HSD during the upgrade period) deposited into OGRA-managed escrow accounts to fund up to 27.5% of upgradation project cost, against a commitment by Pakistan's five brownfield refineries (PRL, NRL, ARL, PARCO, Cnergyico) to invest an estimated USD 4.5-6 billion to produce Euro-V compliant fuels. CCoE-approved amendments on 6 February 2024 extended the deemed-duty horizon to 20 years (or until petroleum-product price deregulation, whichever comes first) and tightened the framework for refineries that decline to sign Upgrade Agreements.