Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 22 December 2024 the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam, under General Secretary Tô Lâm, issued Resolution 57-NQ/TW designating science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation as Vietnam's "top strategic breakthrough" through 2030 with vision to 2045. The resolution targets ≥50% digital-economy share of GDP, top-30 global ranking in innovation and digital transformation, and at least 10 globally-competitive Vietnamese digital-technology enterprises by 2030. It identifies data, AI, blockchain, and IoT as priority bottlenecks and operates as the parent/umbrella authority under which all subsequent Government, National Assembly, Prime-Ministerial and Ministerial tech-industrial instruments are formulated. Operational implementation runs through Government Resolution 03/NQ-CP of 9 January 2025 (action programme).

The Minerals Regulation Commission Act, No. 14 of 2024 repeals and replaces Zambia's 2015 Mines and Minerals Development Act in its entirety, establishing a new autonomous Minerals Regulation Commission (MRC) as the country's central mining-sector regulator together with a standalone Mining Appeals Tribunal. The Act restructures licensing, royalty administration, monitoring and enforcement, and creates a dedicated dispute-resolution architecture separating regulatory and adjudicatory functions. Assented to on 20 December 2024 and gazetted on 26 December 2024, the Act took effect on 13 June 2025 pursuant to the Minerals Regulation Commission Act, 2024 (Commencement) Order, 2025 (SI 42 of 2025) signed by the Minister of Mines and Minerals Development on 3 June 2025.

Ethiopia's Banking Business Proclamation No. 1360/2025, ratified by the House of Peoples' Representatives on 17 December 2024 and gazetted in March 2025, repeals Proclamation 592/2008 and opens Ethiopia's banking sector to foreign participation for the first time since the 1974 Derg-era nationalisations. Foreign banks may enter via subsidiary establishment, branch licensing, representative offices, or equity acquisition in existing domestic banks. A single strategic foreign investor is capped at 40% ownership per domestic bank, with aggregate foreign ownership across all investors capped at 49%. The reform positions Ethiopia — Africa's second-most-populous country — as a competitor to Nairobi, Lagos, and Johannesburg as an African banking centre, unlocking entry plans by Standard Bank, KCB Group, Equity Bank, ABSA, and GCC-based institutions.

On 16 December 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2024/3192 amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014, the 15th package of restrictive measures against Russia. The package adds 84 asset-freeze listings (54 individuals and 30 entities) under Regulation 269/2014 — for the first time including fully-fledged designations of seven Chinese individuals and entities supplying drone components, machine tools, and dual-use goods to the Russian military-industrial complex. It expands the EU shadow-fleet vessel- ban list by 52 tankers (total 79), activates the standalone EU hybrid- threats sanctions regime with its first 16-individual / 3-entity designations, extends the wind-down derogation for divestment from Russian subsidiaries to 31 December 2025, and reinforces anti- circumvention contractual clauses on EU exporters of dual-use goods.

Greece enacted Law 5164/2024, published in Government Gazette ΦΕΚ A' 202 on 12 December 2024, amending the Strategic Investments framework of Law 4864/2021 to create a new "Flagship Investments" sub-category with a 45-day strategic-approval procedure, up to 12-year income-tax stabilisation, cash grants, accelerated depreciation, and location-based incentives. Eligible projects explicitly include the production, extraction, refining and processing of EU-designated critical and strategic raw materials (aluminium, lithium, gallium, germanium per Regulation (EU) 2024/1252), circular-economy investments (reuse, repair, recycling), and the shipbuilding and maritime industry. The law is Greece's first foundational statutory alignment to the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and re-anchors Greek industrial-policy architecture to allied CRM and strategic-autonomy objectives.

Australia enacted the Taxation (Multinational—Global and Domestic Minimum Tax) Act 2024 (No. 132, 2024) and its companion Imposition Act (No. 133, 2024), receiving royal assent on 10 December 2024, together implementing all three OECD/G20 GloBE charges in a single legislative cycle: an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR), an Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR), and a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT). The IIR and QDMTT apply to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2024 (retroactive at enactment); the UTPR applies to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. All three charges apply to Australian members of MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million, administered by the Australian Taxation Office.

UAE Cabinet Decision No. 142 of 2024, announced 9 December 2024 and formally gazetted 11 February 2025, introduces a Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT) on UAE constituent entities of Multinational Enterprise (MNE) groups with consolidated annual revenues ≥ EUR 750 million in at least two of the four preceding fiscal years. The DMTT ensures a 15% minimum effective tax rate (ETR) on UAE-source profits, functioning as a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) under the OECD/G20 Pillar Two GloBE framework, thereby giving the UAE first-priority taxing right before any IIR top-up by a parent-jurisdiction authority. The measure applies to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. The UAE deliberately excluded the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and Under-Taxed Profits Rule (UTPR) from this primary instrument, deferring those to subsequent Cabinet Decisions; the QDMTT-only architecture mirrors Singapore's MEMTA and Switzerland's MindStV as the first-mover design choice for established low-tax financial hubs.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced on 3 December 2024 (MOFCOM Announcement No. 46 of 2024) a formal ban on dual-use exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials including diamond and cubic boron nitride. The measure also imposed strict end-use review on graphite exports to the US, with extra scrutiny of military end-uses. It came one day after BIS issued a major export- control package on 2 December 2024 expanding controls on Chinese semiconductor equipment and adding 140 entities to the Entity List, and was framed by MOFCOM as a national- security countermeasure.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued its largest single export-control package targeting China's semiconductor industry on 2 December 2024, with three layered measures (final rules published in the Federal Register 5 December 2024). First, controls on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) above set performance thresholds — blocking the memory architecture that is foundational to AI training. Second, additions of 24 semiconductor manufacturing equipment item types to the Commerce Control List, covering deposition, etch, ion- implant, advanced packaging, and metrology categories. Third, Entity List designations for 140+ entities, the bulk Chinese semiconductor companies + equipment makers + investment vehicles, including major Chinese fab tooling firms. The package triggered MOFCOM's same-day-following retaliation (filed: 2024-12-03-china-mofcom-ge-ga-sb-export-ban-us).

The National Assembly of Vietnam passed the Law on Data (Luật Dữ liệu), No. 60/2024/QH15, on 30 November 2024; it enters into force on 1 July 2025. The Law is Vietnam's first comprehensive horizontal data-governance statute, extending regulation beyond personal data (already covered by Decree 13/2023/ND-CP) to all digital data — public, private, and sectoral. It introduces statutory categories of "important data" (dữ liệu quan trọng) and "core data" (dữ liệu cốt lõi) tied to national-defence and national-security review for cross-border transfer, and establishes the National Data Centre under the Ministry of Public Security plus a statutory data-broker / data-services licensing framework.

Vietnam's 15th National Assembly adopted Law No. 54/2024/QH15 on Geology and Minerals on 29 November 2024 (446 of 448 votes), promulgated by Presidential Order on 20 December 2024 and effective 1 July 2025 (Articles 110.2 and 110.3 effective earlier on 15 January 2025). The law replaces the 2010 Mineral Law and introduces a four-group mineral classification, with Group I — covering metallic minerals (including rare earths), energy minerals, precious/semi-precious stones, and industrial minerals — placed under state-controlled licensing, national master-plan approval by the Prime Minister, and a "supply-the-domestic-industrial-ecosystem" priority that operates as a de-facto export curb on raw and minimally-processed strategic minerals. Vietnam holds the world's second-largest rare-earth reserves after China, making the new statute a foundational instrument for a state-controlled midstream gateway in non-China REE supply.

Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), Bolivia's state lithium SOE, signed a USD 1.030bn services contract on 26 November 2024 with Hong Kong CBC Investment Ltd. (a CATL-CMOC-BRUNP consortium) to build and operate two direct-lithium-extraction (DLE) plants on the Salar de Uyuni — one rated at 10,000 t/yr and one at 25,000 t/yr lithium carbonate, for combined 35,000 t/yr nameplate capacity. Bolivia retains a 51% sovereign share through YLB; CBC supplies financing, EDL technology and offtake. The contract was transmitted to the Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional and the Chamber of Deputies' Plural Economy, Production and Industry Commission approved it by majority in mid-2025 (Bill No. 197/2024-2025); full plenary ratification remained pending as of May 2026, with a parallel Colcha K mixed-court suspension order on FPIC (free, prior and informed consent) grounds.

Mongolia's State Great Hural adopted a comprehensive package of amendments to the 2009 Nuclear Energy Law on 21 November 2024 (approved by 68.1% of votes), restructuring the country's uranium-sector governance across three principal axes. The amendments introduce a dynamic three-tier uranium royalty framework — 5% basic (AMNAT) + 5% special + 0–9% price-linked incremental royalty, yielding approximately 14–19% aggregate — that replaces a flat-rate structure with a price-elastic mechanism designed to capture uranium supercycle upside for the Mongolian state. The law also prohibits export of radioactive minerals in raw ore form (mandatory domestic processing to at least yellowcake/U₃O₈ before export), prohibits import, transit, and disposal of foreign spent nuclear fuel in Mongolia, and provides the parliamentary legal underpinning for the ~USD 1.6 billion Orano (France)– Mongolia state investment agreement on the Zuuvch-Ovoo in-situ-leach uranium deposit (Dornogovi province), signed October 2024, targeting first production in 2028 with eventual ramp-up to ~2,500 t/yr uranium output.

Government of Russia Resolution No. 1544, signed by Prime Minister Mishustin on 14 November 2024 and published 15 November 2024, amends Resolution No. 313 of 9 March 2022 (the framework counter-sanctions list of goods restricted for export to "unfriendly" jurisdictions) by adding HS code 2844 20 — uranium enriched in U-235 and its compounds — to Annex 2. The amendment imposes a temporary export ban on enriched uranium to the United States and to legal entities incorporated in US jurisdiction, in force from 16 November 2024 through 31 December 2025. Exports are permitted only under one-off licences issued by the Russian Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC). The measure is an explicit tit-for-tat response to the US Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act (Public Law 118-50, 13 May 2024).

Singapore enacted the Multinational Enterprise (Minimum Tax) Act 2024 (Act No. 36 of 2024), which received Presidential assent on 8 November 2024 after passing Parliament on 15 October 2024, implementing OECD/G20 GloBE Pillar Two rules for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. The Act introduces a 15% Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (DTT / QDMTT) for MNE groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million; the Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR) is deliberately deferred to a subsequent amendment cycle. Singapore's adoption is structurally significant as the first major low-corporate-tax-rate Asia-Pacific financial hub to conform to the 15% floor, signalling that traditional 17%-rate holding-company and treasury-centre structures are no longer a stable tax-arbitrage substrate.

On 31 October 2024, the President of Uzbekistan signed Law No. LRU-987 "On Subsoil" (Zakon Respubliki Uzbekistan "O nedrakh"), a wholesale recodification of Uzbekistan's mining and subsoil regime that entered into force on 2 February 2025. The new statute expands from 51 articles in the prior version to 172 articles, comprehensively overhauling licensing, royalty, and foreign-investor terms for hard minerals (including rare earths, copper, uranium, gold, lithium) and hydrocarbons. Drafting was developed in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), signalling strategic intent to attract Western mining capital and align UZ subsoil regime with international good practice ahead of the Almalyk/Navoi IPO track and downstream critical-minerals programmes.

The European Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2754 on 29 October 2024 imposing definitive countervailing duties on imports of new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) originating in China, effective the day after publication. Following a 13-month investigation initiated by Commissioner Dombrovskis in October 2023, the rates layered on top of the existing 10% MFN duty are: BYD 17.0%, Geely 18.8%, SAIC 35.3%, Tesla 7.8% (individually-investigated), 17.0% for sampled cooperating producers, 20.7% for non-sampled cooperating producers, 35.3% for non-cooperating producers. Duties are payable for five years from entry into force unless reviewed earlier. The measure followed a member-state vote with Germany voting against and France/Italy in favour.

Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 of the European Parliament and of the Council on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, signed 23 October 2024 and entering into force 10 December 2024. The CRA is the first EU statutory cybersecurity regime covering all hardware and software products with a direct or indirect data connection placed on the EU market, imposing essential cybersecurity requirements, conformity assessment with CE marking, mandatory vulnerability handling, and 24-hour early-warning notification of actively-exploited vulnerabilities to ENISA. Main manufacturer obligations apply from 11 December 2027; conformity-assessment-body notification provisions apply from 11 June 2026 and reporting obligations from 11 September 2026. Penalties reach EUR 15M or 2.5% of global annual turnover.

Premier Li Qiang signed State Council Decree No. 792 on 19 October 2024 promulgating the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Export Controls for Dual-Use Items, with effect from 1 December 2024. The regulation, organised in six chapters and 50 articles, consolidates the previously fragmented nuclear / biological / chemical / missile dual-use control regimes into a single State Council framework operationalising the 2020 Export Control Law. It introduces a control-list / temporary-control / watchlist architecture, a statutory end-user / end-use commitment regime, transit / transhipment / re-export controls, extraterritorial reach over PRC items downstream, and explicit linkage to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. On 15 November 2024 MOFCOM, MIIT, GAC and SCA jointly issued Announcement No. 51 of 2024 publishing the consolidated Dual-Use Items Export Control List with a unified five-character ECCN-style coding system, also effective 1 December 2024.

On 18 October 2024 the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved Government Resolution No. 868 adopting the Concept of Investment Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2029. The Concept sets a binding strategic-document target to attract at least US$150 billion in foreign direct investment over 2024-2029 and to raise fixed-capital investment from approximately 15.1% of GDP (2023) toward 23-25.1% of GDP by 2029. Its principal new instruments are (i) Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK / BDK) concessional lending at 6% interest for a 10-year tenor for the engineering infrastructure of new industrial projects, (ii) regional investment headquarters (one per oblast) modelled on the existing national Investment Headquarters under the Prime Minister, (iii) a national digital investment platform (invest.gov.kz) for streamlined permitting and investor aftercare, (iv) a unified register of investor issues and complaints administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the designated FDI-attraction owner, and (v) counter-obligations (localisation, employment, technology transfer) imposed on recipients of state preferences. The Concept is the principal implementing instrument under the 2021 Law on Industrial Policy (Law No. 86-VII ZRK) on the investment-attraction side and is designed to operate alongside the 2023 REE Comprehensive Plan and the 2025 Subsoil Code amendments on the minerals-extraction side.

On 11 October 2024, the Secretary of the Treasury — acting in consultation with the Secretary of State and pursuant to section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order 13902 — determined that the petroleum and petrochemical sectors of the Iranian economy are sectors of strategic concern, exposing non-US persons that operate in or knowingly facilitate significant transactions with those sectors to secondary sanctions and SDN-listing risk. The determination was issued in response to Iran's 1 October 2024 ballistic- missile attack on Israeli targets and was formally published in the Federal Register on 19 November 2024 (FR Doc 2024-26800). Concurrent with the determination, OFAC designated an international network — including Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars — that had shipped millions of barrels of Iranian crude on behalf of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff to the People's Republic of China.

Regulation (EU) 2024/2747, adopted on 9 October 2024 and published in the Official Journal on 8 November 2024, establishes the EU's first dedicated framework to anticipate, prepare for and respond to crises affecting the internal market. IMERA creates a two-tier "vigilance" / "emergency" mode architecture, sets up the Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Board (IMERB) to coordinate Member States and advise the Commission, and equips the Commission with last-resort powers including mandatory information requests to economic operators, priority-rated orders for crisis-relevant goods, fast-track conformity-assessment procedures, and rules to safeguard free movement of goods, services and persons. The regulation amends Council Regulation (EC) No 2679/98 (the "Strawberries Regulation") and becomes applicable on 29 May 2026.

The full Pleno of the Corte Suprema de Justicia of Honduras ruled unanimously on 20 September 2024 that Decree 236-2012 (constitutional amendments enabling the ZEDE regime) and Decree 120-2013 (Organic Law of the ZEDEs) violate the "stone-written" Articles 294, 303, and 329 of the Honduran Constitution, which govern territorial organisation, the justice system, and the economic regime respectively. The court applied a retroactive nullatory effect, treating the ZEDE framework as legally void ab initio (from origin). The ruling was published in La Gaceta No. 36,698 on 25 November 2024, conferring erga omnes legal force; the three operational ZEDEs — Próspera (Roatán), Orquídea (Choluteca), and Ciudad Morazán (Cortés) — are formally without statutory basis under Honduran law. The decision triggers a US$10.7 billion CAFTA-DR ICSID arbitration claim (Próspera v. Honduras; preliminary objections decided 26 February 2025) and sets a constitutional precedent for the cost of retroactive SEZ annulment globally.

On 6 September 2024 the Dutch government announced an expansion of its national export-control measure on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, bringing two additional ASML DUV immersion lithography systems — TWINSCAN NXT:1970i and NXT:1980i — under a Dutch national authorisation requirement for shipments to destinations outside the EU. The measure took effect on 7 September 2024 via a ministerial regulation published in Staatscourant 2024 no. 29008. Until this point those two older system variants were controlled extraterritorially through the US Foreign Direct Product Rule; the change transfers licensing authority from BIS to the Dutch government and aligns the Dutch national list more tightly with the perimeter set by the June-2023 measure on NXT:2000i+. ASML characterised the update as a "technical change" with no expected impact on its 2024 financials or longer-term outlook.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule on 5 September 2024 (effective 6 September 2024, published in the Federal Register on the same day as 89 FR 73285) establishing multilateral export controls on four categories of emerging technologies: (1) quantum computing items including quantum computers, related cryogenic / control / measurement systems, and certain quantum software; (2) gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) production technology — the next-node semiconductor architecture beyond FinFET; (3) advanced additive-manufacturing equipment for metals + alloys; (4) certain biotech-related items added in a parallel rule on 12 September 2024. The rule operates without country exceptions for some categories, with multilateral coordination via Wassenaar + Australia Group + Nuclear Suppliers Group frameworks.

Cabinet Resolution No. 97 of 2024 is the implementing regulation of UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 43 of 2021 on Commodities Subject to Non-Proliferation. It operationalises the UAE's horizontal dual-use export-control regime, empowering the Executive Office for Control & Non-Proliferation (EOCN) to designate prohibited and restricted goods on the National Control List and to issue export/transit/re-export permits within 20 working days. The Control List covers nuclear materials, chemicals and precursors, electronics, telecommunications, sensors and lasers, navigation systems, avionics, marine and aerospace equipment, propulsion systems, and "national controlled commodities" (armoured vehicles, autonomous equipment). This is the regulatory architecture under which post-G42 advanced AI-chip outbound flows from the UAE are licensed.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) final rule (89 FR 68544; FR Doc 2024-19130) added 123 entities under 131 entries to the Entity List with destinations Russia (63), China (42), Iran (11), Turkey (8), and one each in Canada, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Crimea Region of Ukraine, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates. The dominant rationale is Russia-diversion enforcement: Chinese, Turkish and other third-country firms (e.g., MAK Logistics, Megatek Ltd., Wellgo International, AllChips Limited, Chipgoo Electronics) named for supplying U.S.-origin electronics and dual-use items to Russian industry and military, plus designation of large numbers of Russian military manufacturers (e.g., JSC 75 Arsenal, FSE Aleksinsky Chemical Plant) as military end users. License requirement is "all items subject to the EAR" with policy/presumption of denial; case-by-case for EAR99 food and medicine to certain Russian military end users. Effective on publication 2024-08-27.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly issued Announcement No. 33 of 2024 on 15 August 2024, imposing an export licensing regime on antimony ore, antimony metal, antimony oxides (purity ≥99.99%), organic antimony compounds, antimony hydride, indium antimonide, and gold-antimony smelting technology, effective 15 September 2024. The announcement also covers six-sided top-press equipment used in superhard-materials (diamond, cubic boron nitride) production. China accounts for approximately 47% of global antimony mine output and an estimated 75-80% of refined antimony supply; in the months following implementation, Chinese antimony export volumes fell by approximately 97% and global antimony trioxide spot prices roughly doubled.

On 11 August 2024, King Salman issued Royal Decree No. M/19 promulgating Saudi Arabia's new Investment Law (Nizam al-Istithmar), which entered into force on 12 February 2025 (180 days after publication in the Um Al-Qura' Gazette). The law replaces the 2000 Foreign Investment Law (Royal Decree M/1) and eliminates the statutory distinction between Saudi and non-Saudi investors, establishing a unified national-treatment framework: foreign investors no longer require a separate MISA foreign-investment licence and instead complete a streamlined registration with a national registry before commencing activity (other than listed securities, which remain under CMA rules). The law codifies fair-and-equitable treatment, freedom to manage and repatriate capital, IP protection, and protection from expropriation except by final judicial ruling with prompt compensation; activities are open by default, subject only to an "Excluded Activities" list maintained by an inter-ministerial committee. Implementing Regulations were issued by Ministerial Resolution No. 1086 dated 8/8/1446H (7 February 2025) and published in Um Al-Qura' Gazette issue 5083 on 25 April 2025. The law is the foundational FDI architecture for Vision 2030 and pairs with the 30-year RHQ tax-incentive package and the 2021 Mining Investment Law.

On 2 August 2024, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned Lei nº 14.948/2024 (with partial veto, Mensagem nº 741) at a ceremony in the Pecém Industrial-Port Complex in Ceará, following Senate and Chamber approval of PL 2308/2023; the law was published in the Diário Oficial da União on 5 August 2024. The statute establishes Brazil's first comprehensive legal framework for low-carbon hydrogen: it (i) creates the National Low-Carbon Hydrogen Policy (PNH2BC) under the National Energy Policy umbrella, (ii) sets a statutory definition of "low-carbon hydrogen" as fuel/industrial input with lifecycle GHG intensity ≤ 7 kg CO₂e/kg H₂, (iii) institutes the Brazilian Hydrogen Certification System (SBCH2) for origin and emissions accreditation, (iv) creates the Special Incentive Regime for Low-Carbon Hydrogen Production (Rehidro), suspending PIS/Pasep and Cofins for five years on capital-goods, raw-materials and services purchases by qualified producers, and (v) authorises the Programa de Desenvolvimento do Hidrogênio de Baixa Emissão de Carbono (PHBC) — a tax-credit envelope capped at BRL 18.3 bn between 2028 and 2032 (subsequently regulated by Lei nº 14.990/2024 sanctioned 30 September 2024). ANP gains regulatory authority over hydrogen transportation, storage and import/export licensing, while the law amends Leis nºs 9.427/1996 (ANEEL) and 9.478/1997 (Petroleum Law) to integrate hydrogen into the energy-policy and electricity-regulation framework. Industry reporting at sanction cited >USD 30 bn in announced project pipeline, concentrated in Northeast renewable-rich states (Ceará, Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte) leveraging Pecém, Suape and Açu as hydrogen-derivative export terminals.

Decree 0977, signed 2 August 2024 by the Petro administration, regulates Article 231 of the National Development Plan (Law 2294/2023) by adding Chapter 12 to Title V, Part 2, Book 2 of Decreto 1073 de 2015, the consolidated mining-and-energy regulation. The decree creates a new state-managed territorial category — Distritos Mineros Especiales para la Diversificación Productiva — split into two tracks: "Distritos Mineros para la Vida y la Paz" (zones of high informal-mining presence, formalisation focus) and "Distritos Mineros para la Transición Energética Justa" (decarbonisation and productive-reconversion focus, principally coal phase-out zones). The decree restructures where, how, and under what licensing terms large-scale mining is permitted in Colombia, the world's #1 thermal coal exporter to Europe and a major LatAm producer of gold, copper and nickel.

On 26 July 2024 President Erdoğan unveiled the HIT-30 (High-Technology Investment Programme), Türkiye's largest single industrial-finance instrument since the 2018 Investment Office reform, allocating USD 30 billion in state support over 2024-2030 to attract investment across 37 priority programmes spanning electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, solar/wind energy, green hydrogen, hyperscale data centres, biotechnological medicine, industrial robotics, and R&D. The Ministry of Industry and Technology is the operating agency, with the Industrialization Executive Committee chaired by the President providing high-level oversight; an Industrialisation Executive Committee under the President directs sectoral allocations. Headline tools include USD 4.5bn earmarked for an 80 GWh battery-manufacturing capacity (with USD 6,000/MWh grants through 2030), USD 2.5bn for 15 GW of domestic solar-cell capacity, USD 1.7bn for wind-component manufacturing, USD 1bn for top-1000 corporate R&D centre support (covering 50% of personnel costs for 5 years), corporate tax reductions, social-security-contribution coverage, energy-cost subsidies covering 50% of bills for energy-intensive projects, customs/VAT exemptions, and free or discounted land allocation in organised industrial zones. Programme targets at least USD 20bn in private-sector co-investment.

The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule expanding the scope of the Iran Foreign Direct Product (FDP) rule in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the "No Technology for Terror Act" (Public Law 118-50, Division N), signed by President Biden on April 24, 2024. The expanded rule extends EAR jurisdiction to additional foreign-produced items destined for Iran — including a broader set of items derived from U.S.-origin technology or software, or produced by plants/components that are themselves direct products of U.S.-origin technology — and requires a BIS license for their export, reexport, or in-country transfer to Iran. The rule also provides specified exclusions from the otherwise-applicable license requirements. The rule became effective on July 23, 2024 (publication July 26, 2024).

Sri Lanka's Economic Transformation Act, No. 45 of 2024, enacted by Parliament on 25 July 2024 and gazetted on 9 August 2024, is the foundational statutory rewrite of the country's post-default FDI and trade-policy architecture. The Act repeals the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Law, No. 4 of 1978 (Section 194) and replaces the BOI with five new institutions: the Economic Commission of Sri Lanka (primary investment-approval and oversight body), Investment Zones Sri Lanka / Zones SL (SEZ management), the Office for International Trade (separating trade-policy from investment-policy functions), the National Productivity Commission, and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade (SLIEIT). The Act also codifies binding fiscal targets aligned with the IMF EFF conditionality — primary surplus of 2.3% of GDP by 2032, revenue exceeding 15% of GDP from 2027, debt-to-GDP below 95% by 2032, and GDP growth of at least 5% by 2027 — making it the parent statutory instrument under which subsequent FDI- incentive and tariff-reform sub-instruments operate.

Mauritania enacted Loi n°2024-037 — the world's first standalone national Green Hydrogen Code — creating a dedicated legal and fiscal framework for the development, production, export and processing of green hydrogen and its derivatives (green ammonia, green methanol, green steel). The law establishes the Agence Mauritanienne pour l'Hydrogène Vert (AMHV) as regulator and one-stop-shop for project licences, grants comprehensive fiscal incentives including full VAT exemption on equipment imports and zero export tax on hydrogen exports, and provides a 30-year fiscal-stability undertaking to qualifying investors. The Code underpins a cumulative project pipeline estimated at USD 40 billion and positions Mauritania as the lead jurisdiction for the proposed Mauritania-EU green-hydrogen export corridor under the CBAM-compatible flag.

Loi n°016-2024/ALT was unanimously adopted by Burkina Faso's Assemblée Législative de Transition on 18 July 2024 and promulgated on 31 July 2024 under the Traoré military-transition government. The 309-article statute replaces Loi n°036-2015/CNT (26 July 2015) and its amendment Loi n°012-2023/ALT (25 July 2023), and is the central legal vehicle for the junta's resource-nationalism agenda. Headline structural changes raise the state's free-carried interest in any new mining venture from 10% to 15% (Article 66) and grant an additional ~30% paid-participation right that may be exercised by the state or a state-mandated investor; mineral processing and sales — notably gold — now require prior administrative authorization; domestic-investor capital-opening, local content, and overproduction penalties are strengthened. Four implementing decrees (mining-title procedures, mining taxes/royalties, sector-approval conditions, capital opening to national investors) were under validation as of October 2024 and are required for full effect.

The Government of Serbia adopted on 16 July 2024 a Decree reinstating the Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose Area (SPSPA) for the exploitation and processing of jadarite mineral — the legal instrument underpinning Rio Tinto's Jadar project in the Mačva District (Loznica municipality). The reinstatement followed the Constitutional Court of Serbia's ruling of 11 July 2024, which declared unconstitutional the Government's January 2022 decree that had revoked the original 2020 SPSPA (Sl. glasnik RS 26/2020) under political pressure. The Jadar deposit is the world's largest known jadarite (Li-borosilicate) resource (~158 Mt at 1.8% Li₂O, 13% B₂O₃), projected to supply ~17% of forecast 2030 European LCE demand, and was subsequently designated an EU CRMA Strategic Project.

The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, was published in the Official Journal on 12 July 2024 and entered into force on 1 August 2024. It establishes the world's first horizontal, risk-tiered legal framework for the development, market placement, and use of AI systems — covering prohibited practices, high-risk systems, general-purpose AI models, and minimal-risk applications — with extraterritorial reach over any provider placing an AI system on the EU market or whose output is used in the EU. Penalties reach up to EUR 35 million or 7% of global annual turnover. Application is staged: prohibitions from 2 February 2025, GPAI and governance from 2 August 2025, the bulk of high-risk obligations from 2 August 2026, and product-safety-embedded high-risk systems from 2 August 2027.

On 4 July 2024 the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (François-Philippe Champagne) issued a ministerial statement on Investment Canada Act net-benefit reviews of Canadian critical-minerals companies. Acquisitions of control of important Canadian mining companies engaged in significant critical-minerals operations, including large Canadian-headquartered firms, will be found of net benefit only "in the most exceptional of circumstances." The statement extends the October 2022 state-owned-enterprise policy to foreign capital generally for this class of target. It states no size threshold and no effective date beyond the announcement.

FinCEN issued a final rule under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (31 U.S.C. § 5318A) prohibiting US covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, Iraq-based Al-Huda Bank, a foreign financial institution found to be of primary money-laundering concern. Treasury determined that Al-Huda Bank exploited its access to US dollars to support designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and IRGC-Quds Force, as well as Iran-aligned Iraqi militias Kata'ib Hizballah and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq. The rule also imposes a special-due-diligence requirement on US covered institutions to guard against indirect access via foreign correspondent accounts. Published in the Federal Register on July 3, 2024; effective August 2, 2024.

Décret n°2024-0396/PT-RM of 9 July 2024 fixes the conditions and modalities for applying Loi n°2023-040 of 29 August 2023 (the new Code Minier of the Republic of Mali). The decree, adopted in Council of Ministers on 3 July 2024 and signed by the transition presidency, operationalises the 2023 statute that replaces the 2019 mining code (Loi n°2019-022). The new framework raises maximum cumulative state-plus-Malian-private participation in mining ventures to roughly 30–35% (10% free-carry to the state, plus an additional 20% paid participation right and 5% reserved to local private investors), reshapes the fiscal regime (royalties, taxes, exemptions) for new permits and conventions, and pairs with companion local-content Loi n°2023-041 of the same date. The 2024 implementing decree is the operative trigger date for downstream investor disputes (Barrick Loulo-Gounkoto suspension, B2Gold Fekola contract renegotiations, Allied Gold Sadiola, Ganfeng Goulamina lithium ramp).

On 29 June 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1865 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1864, amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 to extend Belarus's sanctions regime so that it mirrors the restrictive measures already in force against Russia, closing routes used to circumvent the Russia sanctions via Belarus. The package bans the import of gold, diamonds, helium, coal and other mineral products (including crude oil) originating in or exported from Belarus; bans the import of goods and technology on the EU Common Military List if of Belarusian origin; extends the export ban on dual-use goods, oil-refining and LNG-liquefaction equipment, maritime-navigation goods and luxury goods to Belarus; prohibits transit via Belarus of EU-exported firearms and ammunition; and broadens the road-transport ban. The measures entered into force on 1 July 2024, the day after publication in the Official Journal.

On 27 June 2024 the Argentine Congress passed Law 27.742, the "Ley de Bases y Puntos de Partida para la Libertad de los Argentinos" ("Ley Bases"), the flagship economic reform of the Milei administration. The law was published in the Boletín Oficial on 8 July 2024 and Title VII established the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) — a promotional regime designed to attract large-scale capex into mining, energy, oil & gas, LNG, steel, forestry, tourism, infrastructure, and technology. Implementing Decree 749/2024 was issued on 23 August 2024 and the regime became fully operational with Resolution 1074/2024 on 22 October 2024. RIGI offers single-project vehicles ("VPUs") that commit at least USD 200M (with sector-specific thresholds rising to USD 600M and up to USD 2B for long-term "strategic export" projects) a 30-year regulatory, tax, customs and foreign-exchange stability guarantee. Headline benefits include a reduced 25% corporate income tax (vs. 35% standard), accelerated depreciation, full deductibility of inflation adjustments, an import-duty exemption on capital goods and inputs, a phased relaxation of central-bank obligations to repatriate and convert export proceeds (20% free after year one, 40% after year two, 100% after year three), and reduced dividend withholding tax. Disputes are subject to international arbitration under ICSID or UNCITRAL rules. As of mid-2025, RIGI's project pipeline reached USD 33.9B in submitted applications, of which roughly USD 15.7B (46.5%) had been approved across nine projects spanning steel (Sidersa), energy/LNG (PAE Southern Energy, YPF Argentina LNG), three mining projects, and infrastructure. The flagship approval was Rio Tinto's USD 2.5B Rincón battery-grade lithium carbonate plant in Salta (initial 53,000 t/yr, scaling to 60,000 t/yr by 2028) — the first mining project approved under the regime, on 21 May 2025. Strategically, RIGI is Argentina's bid to compete with Chile's lithium framework and Brazil's industrial policies for upstream-critical-minerals capex. Combined with the lifting of Argentina's FX controls (cepo cambiario) in April 2025 it sharply re-rates the country's project-economics math for multinationals — particularly in the Lithium Triangle, the Vaca Muerta shale, and pipeline/LNG infrastructure. Whether the 30-year stability guarantee survives a future change of government is the dominant political-risk overhang on the regime.

On 24 June 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745, the 14th package of restrictive measures against Russia, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. The package introduces the EU's first targeted measures against Russian LNG (a ban on EU-port transhipment to third countries after a 9-month transition, and a prohibition on EU investment and goods/services exports to Russian LNG projects under construction such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG), bans EU entities outside Russia from using the SPFS Russian financial-messaging system, designates 27 named "shadow-fleet" tankers under a new vessel-specific port-access ban, and imposes a "best-efforts" obligation on EU parents to ensure non-EU subsidiaries do not engage in sanctions circumvention. It adds 116 new listings (69 individuals, 47 entities), including third-country circumvention enablers, to the asset-freeze and travel-ban regime.

The Global Minimum Tax Act (GMTA), enacted as section 81 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 (Bill C-69; S.C. 2024, c. 17) and receiving royal assent on 20 June 2024, is Canada's primary legislative implementation of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework Pillar Two GloBE (Global Anti-Base Erosion) rules. The Act imposes a 15% minimum effective tax rate on Canadian members of multinational enterprise groups with consolidated annual revenue ≥ EUR 750 million via an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT); both apply retroactively to fiscal years beginning on or after 31 December 2023, meaning the first compliance returns are due as early as 30 June 2026. The Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR) backstop was deliberately carved out for separate later enactment. Canada structured the GMTA as a stand-alone statute — distinct from its EU, UK, and Korean counterparts, which amend or transpose into existing tax legislation — and administered by the Canada Revenue Agency as the collecting authority.

On 20–21 June 2024 Niger's Ministry of Mines, acting under the CNSP military-transition government, formally notified the Director General of Imouraren SA (the Orano subsidiary holding the Imouraren uranium permit) that the perimeter of the "IMOURAREN Permit" returned to the public domain of Niger and was freed of all derived rights, in application of articles 59 and 61 of Ordinance no. 93-16 of 2 March 1993 (Niger Mining Law). The decision followed a 7 June 2024 ministerial "note d'information" giving Orano until 19 June to engage development works under the earlier 19 March 2024 mise en demeure, and the Ministry's finding that Orano's 26 April 2024 exploitation plan "did not meet our expectations". Imouraren is one of the world's largest known uranium deposits at ~200,000 t U (Orano-disclosed reserves, originally permitted to AREVA in January 2009 with mine-build paused after the 2011 Fukushima uranium-price collapse). Orano had held 63.4% of Imouraren SA against 36.6% by Niger state-owned Sopamin. Orano notified the public on 20 June 2024 that it took note of the decision, and on 4 December 2024 initiated ICSID arbitration against the Niger state contesting the revocation. The action is the first leg of the 2024–2025 Niger-Orano break (followed by the December 2024 announcement of loss of operational control over Somaïr / Cominak / Imouraren and the June 2025 Somaïr nationalisation announcement).

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.

BIS final rule (FR Doc 2024-13148, 89 FR 51644, RIN 0694-AJ87) expanding the Export Administration Regulations' Russia and Belarus sanctions architecture. Effective 12 June 2024 (most provisions) and 16 September 2024 (the EAR99 enterprise-software paragraph at §746.8(a)(8)), the rule introduces a new licence requirement for thirteen named categories of EAR99 enterprise software (ERP, CRM, BI, SCM, EDW, CMMS, project management, PLM, BIM, CAD, CAM, ETO) destined for Russia or Belarus; permits address-only Entity List designations to capture high-diversion addresses; adds eight Hong Kong addresses to the Entity List; and refines the Russia/Belarus Industry Sector Sanctions and Foreign Direct Product (FDP) rule. Released the day before the G7 Italy summit alongside coordinated OFAC, State, and Treasury actions that together designated 300+ persons and entities.

Presidential Decree (Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı) No. 8639, dated 7 June 2024 and published in the Resmi Gazete on 8 June 2024, amends Türkiye's Decision on the Application of Additional Customs Duty on Imports to impose a 40% additional ad valorem duty (or USD 7,000 per unit, whichever is higher) on China-origin passenger vehicles classified under HS heading 8703 — covering internal-combustion, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric models. The measure entered into force 30 days after publication, on 7 July 2024, with an exemption for imports made under an Investment Incentive Certificate (Yatırım Teşvik Belgesi) — explicitly designed to channel Chinese OEMs into domestic Turkish assembly.

On 2 June 2024, Treasurer Jim Chalmers signed the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers (Disposal of Interests in Northern Minerals Limited) Orders 2024 (F2024N00475), directing five China-linked foreign investors to divest a combined 613,573,632 shares in Northern Minerals Limited (ASX: NTU) to non-associates by 2 September 2024 on national-security grounds. The five named investors are Yuxiao Fund Pte Ltd, Black Stone Resources Limited, Indian Ocean International Shipping and Service Company Limited, Ms Ximei Liu, and Mr Xi Wang, together holding approximately 10.4% of NTU's total shares. NTU owns the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earths Project in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia — one of the few commercial-scale dysprosium and terbium deposits outside China. This is the foundational FATA s.69(2) disposal-order instrument; non-compliance led to an AUD 14 million Federal Court penalty in January 2026 and a second tranche of disposal orders against six further China-linked investors in May 2026.