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

Malaysia's Ministry of Finance gazetted P.U. (A) 9/2026, the Customs (Prohibition of Imports) (Amendment) Order 2026, on 9 January 2026, taking effect 15 January 2026. The order adds 1-boc-4-piperidone and P-2-P methyl glycidic acid (BMK glycidic acid) — together with its methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl and tert-butyl esters — to the Second Schedule of the Customs (Prohibition of Imports) Order 2017, requiring an approved permit before import. Global Trade Alert lists China, Japan and South Korea among the trade partners affected by the new licensing gate.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that chromium trioxide (chromic acid anhydride, used in chrome plating and surface-finishing) from India and Türkiye is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, following a September 2025 petition by American Chrome & Chemicals. Commerce set a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin and cash-deposit rate of 14.44% for India's Vishnu Chemicals (12.00% cash-deposit rate) and 40.88% for Türkiye's Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları, triggering suspension of liquidation and cash-deposit collection on covered entries from both countries effective 2026-05-22. The investigation period was July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025; final determinations are scheduled for 2026-08-10 (Türkiye) and 2026-10-07 (India, aligned with the companion countervailing-duty case).

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 844, de 30 de dezembro de 2025, amending Annexes IV and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to modify import tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and duties on 15 products, effective 1 January 2026. The resolution establishes new duty-free (0%) TRQs for 11 product categories — including nutritional supplements (30 metric tons/year), animal-feed additives, contact lenses (a combined 40.375 million units/year across two NCM headings), electrical cable connectors, and glass ampoules — while removing existing duty-free quota treatment for four products (a thermal-control polyethylene film, a rubber sanitary/contraceptive item under NCM 4014.10.00, an anhydrous sodium-compound chemical under NCM 2836.20.10, and one further excluded product), whose duty reverts from 0% to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) rate. The measure is a routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance action rather than a trade-remedy or policy-driven restriction.

On 31 December 2025 Mexico's Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER) published the Acuerdo setting the Reglas de Operación (operating rules) of the "Fertilizantes para el Bienestar" programme for fiscal year 2026 in the Diario Oficial de la Federación. The programme's budget rises to MXN 18.2 billion for 2026, up from MXN 17.5 billion in 2025 (+4%), and continues direct in-kind fertilizer distribution to small-scale producers of priority staple crops (corn, beans, rice) prioritizing women, Indigenous communities, and producers in the country's most marginalized rural municipalities. Global Trade Alert classifies the programme as carrying both a production-subsidy and a local-content-requirement component, effective 1 January through 31 December 2026.

Türkiye imposed a provisional WTO safeguard measure on imports of PET resin (polyethylene terephthalate, viscosity ≥78 ml/g, GTİP 3907.61.00.00.00) via Presidential Decision No. 10806, published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 5. Mükerrer) alongside the implementing "İthalatta Korunma Önlemlerine İlişkin Tebliğ" (Tebliğ No. 2026/1). The measure levies an additional financial obligation of USD 100 per tonne, applied erga omnes for up to 200 days while the Ministry's full safeguard investigation continues. A tariff-quota carve-out exempts eligible developing-country origins meeting the WTO Safeguards Agreement Article 9 de-minimis threshold (individually ≤3% of 2024 imports, collectively ≤9%): roughly 3,693 tonnes per country and 11,079 tonnes in aggregate are admitted duty-free before the $100/tonne obligation applies to the remainder. Leading 2024 PET resin suppliers to Türkiye include China, South Korea and Italy.

Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı No. 10790 (Resmi Gazete 31 December 2025, issue 33124 3rd reprint), in force 1 January 2026, restructures Türkiye's annual import-tariff architecture across 4,344 product lines from non-EU origins. The decree (i) introduces or expands additional customs duty (Ek Mali Yükümlülük / İlave Gümrük Vergisi) of 5%–48% on non-EU imports of iron and non-alloy steel, copper, aluminium, and base-metal household goods; (ii) introduces forward-looking import-surveillance measures across 172 products under 36 notifications, with reference-price floors that cap effective duty relief on under-valued shipments; (iii) updates duties on 324 Customs Tariff Statistical Positions across 21 chapters (219 HS lines raised by 2.4–15 percentage points; 8 lines under HS 7225/7228/8528/8529 raised by 3–14 points; 2 lines reduced by 6 points); (iv) opens duty-free tariff quotas for 35 industrial-product categories — including 27 battery / lithium-cell HS codes through 1 February 2027, 8m m² of plastic-treated textiles through 31 December 2026, and 40,725 tons of organic chemicals and aluminium sheets (16 February–31 December 2026); and (v) imposes a permit regime (6-month validity) on used and refurbished goods. EU and EU-Customs-Union origins remain exempt under A.TR preferential rules; the structural asymmetry vs non-EU partners is the core mechanism. Stated rationale (Ministry of Trade): support domestic production, prevent unfair competition, increase employment, reduce the current-account deficit.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/2 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on chlorinated paraffins (GTİP 3824.99.92.00.34). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 2.5/kg gross weight require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. The measure is de jure origin-neutral; Global Trade Alert's trading-partner data for this intervention was not accessible without a paid account, so no specific target countries are asserted here.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 10 individuals and entities in Venezuela and Iran on 30 December 2025 for facilitating Iran's proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ballistic-missile inputs. Venezuela-based Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA (EANSA) and its chair, Jose Jesus Urdaneta Gonzalez, were designated for negotiating directly with Iran's Qods Aviation Industries (QAI) and overseeing local assembly of QAI's Mohajer-series UAVs, re-branded in Venezuela as the ANSU series — an arrangement OFAC states has run since 2006. Separately, three Iran-based persons were designated for procuring sodium perchlorate, sebacic acid and nitrocellulose — precursor chemicals for ballistic-missile propellant and warhead production — on behalf of Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI), a unit of Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO). The action was taken under Executive Order 13382 (WMD proliferators and supporters) and Executive Order 13949 (Iran conventional-arms activities), in furtherance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 2.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which creates a new JPY 3.0 billion (~USD 20m) financial-grant line, the "Business Commercialisation Promotion Project for Combinate Regeneration under the GX Strategic Regional System" (GX戦略地域制度におけるコンビナート 等再生に向けた事業化促進事業), administered by METI. The single-year (FY2026 only) grant funds feasibility work -- project-cost and profitability evaluation, investment-decision support for new operators, and off-taker matching -- for redeveloping idle or underused industrial-complex ("combinate") sites into new GX-aligned industrial clusters. It is one of four categories under METI's GX Strategic Regional System, alongside data-centre aggregation, decarbonized-power utilisation, and decarbonized- power regional-contribution types (the last already filed separately in this register). The programme takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026.

On 24 December 2025 the Collegium (Board) of the Eurasian Economic Commission adopted Decision No. 137, splitting five broad EAEU Common Customs Tariff commodity codes (covering magnesium oxide, paints, leather/textile-treatment preparations and SBS block copolymer) into narrower codes limited to leather-footwear-industry end use, and assigning several of the new codes a "109С" zero import-duty rate (versus a standard 5-6.5% MFN rate for the same goods in other end uses) running through 31 December 2028. The Collegium decision was gated to take effect only once the EEC Council's parallel Decision No. 13 (signed 30 January 2026, published 26 February 2026) on the same tariff-nomenclature and chemical-industry line items entered into force; both took effect together on 8 March 2026 across all five EAEU member states (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan).

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2614, adopted 12 December 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 22 December 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2283 and issues a wholesale replacement of the EU's autonomous import tariff-rate quota (ATQ) list, superseding the prior version dated December 2013 and its last update in June 2025. It applies from 1 January 2026 and grants duty-free or reduced-duty access, within fixed volume ceilings, for a broad set of agricultural and industrial inputs including basic organic chemicals, tanning/dyeing extracts, and fertilizer/pesticide inputs not produced in sufficient quantity within the Union. Global Trade Alert logs it as a "Red" (trade-liberalising but discriminatory-in-effect) intervention because the quota volumes are finite even though the duty treatment is erga omnes.

The European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on 19 December 2025 (Case AD747, notice published in OJ C/2025/6744) into imports of sodium benzoate (CN code ex 2916 31 00, CUS 0023120-9, CAS 532-32-1) originating in China, following a complaint from Lanxess Chemical B.V. filed on 10 November 2025. The Commission first made imports subject to customs registration via Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/366 of 19 February 2026. On 27 July 2026 the Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1854, published 28 July 2026, imposing provisional antidumping duties ranging from 57.6% to 116.4% by exporter. The measure remains provisional pending the investigation's final outcome.

The European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on 19 December 2025 (Case AD748, notice published in OJ C/2025/6741) into imports of benzyl alcohol (CN code 2906 21 00, CAS 100-51-6) originating in China, following a complaint from EU producers LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, LANXESS Chemical B.V. and Vynova Advanced Organics Maastricht B.V. The Commission first made imports subject to customs registration via Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/362 of 17 February 2026, preserving the option to apply duties retroactively. On 28-29 July 2026 the Commission published a provisional antidumping duty on Chinese benzyl alcohol, reported by trade press to be in the 52.6%-71.2% range pending independent confirmation of the exact implementing regulation and per-exporter rates. The measure remains provisional pending the investigation's final outcome, expected within the statutory deadline.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement announced 2025-12-18/19 providing USD 98 million toward roughly USD 163 million in total co-financing (with Mizuho Bank) for NSC (Australia) Pty Ltd (NSCA), the Australian subsidiary of Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation (TSE: 4091). The facility finances part of NSCA's July 2025 acquisition of the Coregas Group (Coregas Pty Ltd and Blacksmith Jacks Pty Ltd in Australia, Coregas NZ Limited in New Zealand), an industrial-gas producer with one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest production facilities and an active hydrogen-production development program. JBIC explicitly framed the loan as supporting "Japan's economic security" by strengthening the resilience of industrial-gas supply chains used across manufacturing, medical, and beverage industries.

HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published a Russia-regime notice on 18 December 2025 designating five individuals and 19 entities under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. Of the 19 entities, six are based in Russia, eight in the United Arab Emirates, four in Uzbekistan and one in Kyrgyzstan — reflecting OFSI's continued focus on third-country intermediaries used to route sanctioned Russian trade and finance. Designated persons are subject to a full asset freeze and are barred from commercial transactions and investment instruments with UK persons.

The UK Department for Business and Trade, alongside HM Treasury, the Prime Minister's Office and the Scotland Office, announced a GBP 125 million support package for INEOS Olefins & Polymers UK's Grangemouth site, comprising a GBP 75 million government-backed loan guarantee and a GBP 50 million grant. The package forms part of a wider GBP 150 million joint investment with INEOS to fund energy-efficiency upgrades, carbon-emission reductions and productivity improvements at the ethylene production facility, protecting around 500 on-site jobs plus supply-chain roles. Funds are restricted to site-improvement uses and the government retains a right to share in future profits.

The European Commission approved on 15 December 2025 a EUR 408 million Spanish state aid scheme (SA.119880) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), to support decarbonisation of manufacturing industry. The scheme funds direct grants — capped at EUR 200 million per company or project — for investments in electrification, switching to renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, waste heat recovery, and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) across a wide range of sectors including chemicals, ceramics, paper and metallurgy. Aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to enterprises of all sizes, inside and outside the EU Emissions Trading System, and cannot finance increases in production capacity; Spain expects the scheme to deliver annual emissions savings of around 1.6 megatonnes of CO2, with beneficiary projects required to become operational within 60 months of the aid grant.

The European Investment Bank agreed to lend up to EUR 300 million to German specialty-chemicals group ALTANA to finance research and development of lower-emission, lower-VOC and critical-substance-free coatings, adhesives, additives and effect pigments over 2025-2028. The facility is split into two tranches (EUR 100 million available from December 2025, EUR 200 million to follow in Q1 2026) and is delivered under the EIB's TechEU initiative. EIB framed the loan around strengthening European industrial competitiveness and keeping German and European specialty-chemicals producers at the technological frontier.

Morocco's Loi de Finances n° 50-25 for fiscal year 2026, promulgated by Dahir n° 1-25-67 of 10 December 2025 and published in Bulletin Officiel n° 7465 bis of 16 December 2025, sets the FY2026 customs-tariff schedule (continuing the EU Common External Tariff alignment process at 2.5%/17.5%/40% tiers with sector-specific input reductions), amends the fiscal regimes for Zones d'Accélération Industrielle and Casablanca Finance City, and delivers the 2026 tranche of the multi-year IS (corporate-tax) rate-convergence schedule under Framework Law n° 69-19. The law also extends green-investment fiscal accelerators aligned with the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the EU-Morocco Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains, and contains phosphate-sector fiscal provisions affecting OCP Group's DAP/MAP/TSP export treatment. Entry into force: 1 January 2026.

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

Pakistan's Directorate General of Customs Valuation (Karachi), acting under the Federal Board of Revenue, issued Valuation Ruling No. 2029/2025 on 3 December 2025, fixing new minimum customs values for imports of eleven aroma and aromatic chemicals used in perfumes and cosmetics — Citronellol, Coumarin, Dihydro Myrcenol, Eugenol, Geraniol, Linalool, Musk Ambrette, Sandela, Eucalyptus Oil, Peppermint Oil, and Vanillin — sourced primarily from China. The ruling was triggered by representations from domestic importer M/s Franscent (Pvt.) Ltd., which alleged systematic under-invoicing of these products, and was determined under Section 25(9) read with Sections 25(5) and 25(6) of the Customs Act, 1969, after the Directorate found transaction-value and comparable-goods valuation methods unworkable due to sparse and inconsistent import data. Clearance Collectorates were instructed to enforce accurate CAS-number and chemical-identity declarations to prevent misclassification against the new benchmark values.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 821, de 1º de dezembro de 2025, amending Annex V (Letec — List of Exceptions to the Common External Tariff) and Annex X (List of Temporary Exceptions for Automotive Products under ACE 14) of the base tariff-nomenclature Resolução Gecex nº 272/2021. The resolution took effect on the date of its publication in the Diário Oficial da União. Global Trade Alert tracks the measure as four discrete tariff-line interventions bundled under one state act: (1) an import-tariff increase on butyl and sodium-polyacrylate chemical inputs, effective 5 December 2025; (2) a reduction of the import tariff to zero for a pharmaceutical product under NCM 3004.90.79, effective 5 December 2025; (3) a new import tariff-rate quota for a chemical/pigment product under NCM heading 3306.11, effective 5 December 2025; and (4) an import-tariff increase on 16 medical-device products under NCM 9018.90.99, effective 2 December 2025. Two of the four sub-measures are duty increases (harmful to importers) and two are duty reductions/new liberalising quotas — consistent with Gecex's routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance cycle rather than a targeted trade-remedy or industrial-policy action.

Iberdrola Clientes' Project NOON — a 120 MW electrolysis renewable-hydrogen plant in Spain targeting 161,000 tonnes of RFNBO hydrogen production over its first 10 years — was awarded a EUR 135.5 million (USD 140.9 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund second domestic hydrogen auction (IF24). Iberdrola announced the award on 2 December 2025; the formal Grant Agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) was signed on 20 January 2026 as part of a batch of six IF24 projects (Spain, Finland, Norway) completing grant preparation. NOON is one of the eight Spain-based projects selected in the IF24 main lot.

On 1 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) signed localization and knowledge-transfer agreements with four domestic manufacturers — Al-Sweedy Electric, Al-Sahel Company, Al-Zamel Company, and Composite Materials Company — to establish local production of polymer (fibre-composite) street-lighting poles, displacing imported metal and plastic poles. The initiative was run as a competitive "localization opportunity" tender (opened via LCGPA's Localization of Industry & Knowledge Transfer program, submissions closed 14 February 2025) under the sponsorship of the Public Investment Fund's Oil Sustainability Program, which promotes polymer/composite substitutes for hydrocarbon-linked feedstocks. Once qualifying domestic production is established, the product is slated for addition to LCGPA's Mandatory List, which would require government entities, SOEs, and their sub-contractors to source the item exclusively from the approved local manufacturers.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs International Trade Administration (MOEA-ITA) issued a pre-notice (17 November 2025, doc. 經授貿字第 11450120760號) proposing amendments to the "Dual-Use Goods and Technology Export Control List" and the "General Military Goods List" under the Strategic High-Tech Commodities (SHTC) regime, adding or reclassifying items in the basic-inorganic-chemicals, chemical-products, and engines/turbines categories to align with Wassenaar Arrangement list updates. Following the standard 60-day public-comment period, MOEA-ITA published the finalised amendment on 11 February 2026 (doc. 經貿字第 11550200140號), effective immediately, requiring exporters of the newly listed dual-use and military goods to obtain prior export licences regardless of destination.

On 5 February 2026, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno signed in Washington the United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI), formalising the framework jointly announced on 13 November 2025. The agreement is the first standalone bilateral trade-and-investment instrument concluded by the second Trump administration and the first FTA-style agreement signed under the post-IEEPA reciprocal-tariff architecture (Executive Order 14257, "Liberation Day"). On the US side, the ARTI sets out three tariff schedules: (i) Schedule 2A suspends additional reciprocal tariffs under EO 14257 for specified Argentine-origin goods (covering "unavailable natural resources" and non-patented pharmaceutical inputs); (ii) Schedule 2B grants a zero additional reciprocal tariff for designated Argentine agricultural products under EO 14360; and (iii) caps additional ad-valorem duties on other goods at 10% above MFN rates, inclusive of IEEPA reciprocal tariffs. On the Argentine side, illustrative tariff-rate quotas include duty-free access for 80,000 MT of US beef in calendar year 2026, 1,000 MT for cheese, 870 MT for almonds, 40 MT in-shell + 40 MT shelled for pistachios, 80,000 litres for wine (<2 L bottles), and preferential treatment for 10,000 motor vehicles meeting defined technical parameters. Argentina additionally commits to broader preferential market access on medicines, chemicals, machinery, information-technology products, medical devices, and a wide range of agricultural goods, alongside IP-enforcement upgrades (counterfeit/pirated-goods enforcement, patentability criteria, patent-backlog reduction, geographical indications) and investment-facilitation commitments that align Argentina's regime with US-preferred standards on regulatory cooperation, labour and environment.

On 10 November 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce and four other departments issued Announcement No. 73 of 2025, adjusting the "Catalogue of Precursor Chemicals for Export to Specific Countries (Regions)" and adding the United States, Canada and Mexico to the "Specific Countries (Regions) Directory" under the Interim Provisions on the Management of Exports of Precursor Chemicals to Specific Countries (Regions). Exporters must now apply for a license before shipping 13 newly listed categories of precursor chemicals (used in illicit fentanyl and other synthetic-drug manufacture) to these three countries; exports of the same chemicals to other destinations remain unrestricted. The measure took effect the same day it was announced.

On 10 November 2025 the European Commission conditionally approved, under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2560), the c. €14.7bn acquisition of German polymer and polyurethane producer Covestro AG by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The Phase II investigation identified foreign-subsidy distortions including an unlimited UAE State guarantee covering ADNOC and a committed capital increase by ADNOC's state-backed parent into Covestro. To clear the transaction, ADNOC committed to remove the State guarantee, Covestro committed to maintain existing R&D cooperation agreements with EU competitors, and Covestro committed to license its present and future sustainability-related patents (c. 200 patents) to qualifying EU market participants on pre-established transparent terms for ten years. This is the second-ever FSR Phase II conditional clearance (after the September 2024 e&/PPF Telecom decision) and the first FSR remedy package to deploy sustainability-IP licensing as a structural commitment.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 815, de 3 de novembro de 2025, amending Annex IV of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) under the Mercosur supply-shortage tariff-reduction mechanism (Mercosur CMC Resolution nº 49/19). The resolution establishes five new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas — DHA nutritional preparation (80 metric tons/year), rubber gasket/retainer parts (6,250 kg/year), linen yarn (240 metric tons/year), ballistic steel plate (400 metric tons/year) and loudspeakers (5 million units/year) — valid 7 November 2025 to 6 November 2026, while removing an existing duty-free quota for monocalcium phosphate (NCM 2835.26.00), reverting that line to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff rate.

On 31 October 2025, Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) and its subsidiary JIC Capital, Ltd. (JICC) announced the establishment of two new private-equity limited partnerships — JIC PEF2 (JPY600 billion) and JIC PEFJ2 (JPY200 billion), collectively "JIC PE2" and totalling approximately JPY800 billion (~USD 5.36 billion) — launching 1 November 2025. The funds provide state-backed risk capital for large-scale industry restructuring, growth investment, and business-restructuring deals in capital-intensive sectors (mobility, semiconductors, chemicals, materials, healthcare) where JIC judges private PE capital in Japan to be insufficient. PEF2 is the main investment vehicle (10-year term, 5-year investment period); PEFJ2 co-invests alongside PEF2 in large-scale projects.

DOE's Loan Programs Office closed a USD 1.5 billion loan under the Energy Dominance Financing Program to Wabash Valley Resources, LLC to restart and repurpose a coal-gasification plant (idled since 2016) in West Terre Haute, Indiana, converting it into a coal- and petcoke-fed anhydrous ammonia fertilizer facility with 500,000 metric tons/year capacity. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright framed the loan explicitly as reducing US dependence on foreign fertilizer supply by using domestic coal, positioning the plant to supply cost-competitive nitrogen fertilizer to Corn Belt farmers. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a state-loan intervention.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT) issued its final affirmative dumping/injury determination on rutile-grade titanium dioxide (HS 3206.11) originating in China on 27 October 2025, published in the Umm Al-Qura official gazette and effective 28 October 2025. Producer-specific CIF duty rates were set at 19.39% (Shandong Dawn), 29.65% (Anhui Gold Star), 30.9% (LB Group/Lomon Billions), 32.21% (Yibin Tianyuan), and 37.27% (Pangang Group Vanadium & Titanium Resources), with a 45% residual rate for all other Chinese exporters. Anatase-grade TiO2 is explicitly excluded from scope. The measure runs for five years to 26 October 2030, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority directed to collect the duty.

On 26 October 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, on the margins of the ASEAN Summit, President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim signed two complementary instruments structuring the US-Malaysia economic relationship: (i) a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperation to Diversify Global Critical Minerals Supply Chains and Promote Investments, establishing quarterly working-level meetings on bilateral exploration, extraction, processing, refining, manufacturing, and recycling, plus shared commitments on streamlined permitting and protection from non-market policies; and (ii) a legally-binding Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) covering goods (chemicals, machinery, electrical equipment, metals, vehicles, dairy, horticulture, poultry, pork, rice, fuel ethanol), digital trade, services, and investment. Under the ART, the United States maintains a 19% reciprocal tariff on Malaysian imports (with carve-outs for products receiving 0% under EO 14346) while Malaysia commits to refrain from banning or quota-restricting exports of critical minerals or rare earths to the US, ensure no restrictions on rare-earth magnet sales to US firms, and grant extended operating licenses to US partners. The ART enters into force 60 days after exchange of notifications of completed domestic procedures.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Executive Committee (GECEX/CAMEX) imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty for up to five years on imports of rutile-type titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments classified under NCM 3206.11.10 (minimum 80% TiO2 content) originating in China, via Resolução GECEX nº 802 signed 23 October 2025 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 24 October 2025. The duty is levied as a specific tariff ranging from USD 1,148.72 to USD 1,267.74 per metric tonne depending on the identified Chinese producer/exporter. A subsequent public-interest review (Circular SECEX nº 21/2026) was opened in March 2026 and could suspend or modify the measure if a public-interest finding is made.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted the 19th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral sanctions), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2035 amending Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings — 22 individuals + 42 entities, total 69 listings), and Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (parallel Belarus measures). The package closes the Russian-LNG import loophole left open by the 18th package and establishes the architectural template for crypto-asset sanctions. Headline measures: (i) full prohibition on imports of Russian-origin LNG into the EU — short-term contracts banned six months from entry into force (effective 25 April 2026), long-term contracts (> 1 year, executed before 17 June 2025) phased out by 1 January 2027; (ii) full transaction ban on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft (tightening prior partial measures); (iii) five additional Russian banks added to Annex XIV transaction ban (Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank among them; effective 12 November 2025); (iv) full transaction bans on the Mir card payment system and the Faster Payments System (SBP), effective 25 January 2026; (v) first-ever EU sanctions on a stablecoin — the rouble-backed A7A5 (issuer + developer designated) — and a Paraguay-based cryptocurrency exchange used as a circumvention rail; (vi) prohibition on EU operators contracting with 11 listed Russian Special Economic Zones (Annex LII), with mandatory divestment from Alabuga (Tatarstan) and Technopolis Moscow effective 25 January 2026 — no five-year wind-down available; (vii) 45 entities added to Annex IV military end-user list (28 Russian + 17 third-country: 12 Chinese/Hong Kong, 3 Indian, 2 Thai); (viii) new export restrictions on electronic components, microelectronics, acyclic hydrocarbons, pneumatic rubber tires and propellant chemicals (~EUR 155 m of EU 2024 exports); (ix) prohibition on supply of AI, HPC, and quantum-computing services to Russian persons (effective 25 November 2025); (x) tourism-services ban (1 January 2026 wind-down); (xi) 117 additional shadow-fleet vessels listed (cumulative 557, exceeding the 18th package's 444); (xii) four Belarus + Kazakhstan banks listed for SPFS use (effective 2 December 2025); (xiii) binding ownership/control definitions added to Reg. 269/2014 (50 % proprietary-rights threshold + eight-criterion control test). Entry into force on 24 October 2025 (day following publication in OJ L_202502033), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006) and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/2040 (amending Decision 2012/642/CFSP), widening the EU's Belarus restrictive-measures regime in lockstep with the 19th Russia sanctions package adopted the same day. The package widens the export ban to industrial goods (salts, ores, rubber articles, tyres, millstones, construction materials, electronic components, rangefinders, propellant chemicals, metals/oxides/alloys), extends the import ban to all acyclic hydrocarbons, introduces a new prior-licensing requirement for services supplied to Belarus, its government, or public bodies, and mirrors the Russia regime's space, AI, and high-performance/ quantum-computing service restrictions. A companion instrument, Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2039, adds 5 new asset-freeze listings (2 individuals + 3 entities, including JSC Holography Industry, Horizont Holding, and ICT Horizont). Entered into force 24 October 2025.

The Nordic Investment Bank signed a EUR 50 million, 10-year loan with Kemira Oyj on 17 October 2025 to co-finance construction of a new commercial-scale biomaterials production facility in Finland, with total project cost of roughly EUR 130 million. The plant will manufacture bio-based alpha-glucans using an engineered polysaccharide and plant-sugar technology platform developed with International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) under a partnership dating to 2020, supporting Kemira's push toward EUR 500 million in renewable-material revenue by 2030. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention.

On 14 October 2025 the Board (Collegium) of the Eurasian Economic Commission adopted Decision No. 96 imposing five-year definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of titanium dioxide pigment (80%+ TiO2 dry-weight content, HS 3206 11 000 0) originating in China and entering the EAEU customs territory (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan). Duty rates are 14.27% for the LB Group (Henan Billions / Lomon Billions and named subsidiaries) and 16.25% for Shandong Dawn Titanium Industry and all other Chinese producers. Price undertakings were approved for the LB Group and Shandong Dawn Titanium, exempting compliant volumes from duty. The decision entered into force 16 November 2025, 30 days after official publication, following an investigation initiated 17 August 2023.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 799, de 10 de outubro de 2025, amending Annex IV of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) under the Mercosur supply-shortage tariff-reduction mechanism (Mercosur GMC Resolution nº 49/19). The resolution establishes ten new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas covering sodium metabisulfite (24,650 t/year), bisphenol A (10,000 t/year), a microbial inoculant (3,948 units/year), fibrous-grade anatase titanium dioxide (1,500 t/year), banknote security ink (12,000 kg/year), two grades of polyether for concrete additives (2,500 t and 700 t/year), aliphatic polyisocyanate (15,000 t/year), electrolytic manganese metal flakes (972 t/year), and 345kV aluminum conductor power cable (4,000 t/year). Quotas run for one year from their individual validity start dates (16 October 2025 or 27 November 2025 depending on product), granting duty-free entry within volume caps where domestic Mercosur supply is judged insufficient.

On 10 October 2025 Vietnam's Government issued Decree No. 259/2025/NĐ-CP, establishing the country's first comprehensive statutory framework for strategic trade control — covering the export, temporary import for re-export, transshipment, transit, and cross-border trade of strategic goods defined as: (a) WMD-related items, (b) conventional weapons, and (c) dual-use goods spanning nuclear, electronics, telecommunications, sensors, aviation, maritime, aerospace, biochemical, metals, and chemical categories. The decree creates a Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) licensing regime with an ICP (Internal Compliance Programme) fast-track for certified exporters of two or more years' standing, and includes catch-all provisions requiring licensing even for unlisted goods where WMD end-use or a designated end-user is suspected. Structurally, the decree represents Vietnam's transition from ad-hoc export-management provisions under legacy Decree 69/2018/NĐ-CP to a unified strategic-trade-control architecture analytically aligned with the Wassenaar Arrangement, Australia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group, and MTCR control-list architecture. It positions Vietnam as a compliant strategic-goods manufacturing hub within the US-led friend-shoring supply chain, directly preceding the US announcement in February 2026 of Vietnam's removal from EAR Country Groups D:1–D:3.

The Romanian Government adopted HG 855/2025 on 9 October 2025, approving the National Hydrogen Strategy 2025-2030 with a 2050 perspective and its binding Implementation Action Plan. The strategy sets a production target of 152.9 kt/year of renewable hydrogen by 2030 (interim: 48.7 kt/yr by 2027) and 2,130 MW of electrolyser capacity, with EUR 115 million allocated for a first ~60 MW tranche via PNRR/RRF, Modernisation Fund, and Just Transition Fund pathways. It designates five "hydrogen valleys" co-locating producers with hard-to-abate industrial off-takers (steel, chemicals, fertilisers, heavy transport) and anchors Romania's transposition of EU RED III and alignment with the EU Hydrogen Bank auction architecture.

On 9 October 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated more than 50 individuals, entities and vessels for facilitating Iranian crude oil, petroleum-product and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports, in a coordinated action with the State Department. The network included 33 vessels transporting Iranian crude and LPG, shipping entities registered in Panama, the Marshall Islands, Ukraine and Liberia, an Iranian petrochemical producer, four Turkish petrochemical trading entities, five Chinese entities importing/refining/storing Iranian petroleum (including a China-based petrochemical-terminal operator, Jiangyin Foreversun Chemical Logistics Co., Ltd.), three Singapore-based logistics entities, and 27 entities based in Hong Kong, the UAE and India engaged in trading and shipping. The action was taken pursuant to the National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2) maximum-pressure campaign against Iran and blocks all US property/interests of the designated parties, exposing non-US counterparties to secondary-sanctions risk.

On 6 October 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 8 Mexican individuals and 12 Mexico-based companies under Executive Order 14059 for supplying fentanyl precursor chemicals and laboratory equipment to the Sinaloa Cartel's "Los Chapitos" faction, led by fugitive brothers Archivaldo Ivan and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar (sons of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera). The network is centred on Sumilab, a chemical and lab-equipment supplier previously sanctioned by OFAC in May 2023, which restructured through affiliated pharmaceutical, laboratory, chemical, cleaning-supply and real-estate front companies to continue operating after the earlier designation. All property and interests in property of the designated persons within US jurisdiction or held by US persons are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from transacting with them.

On 30 September 2025 Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a facility agreement providing up to USD 1.8 billion (JBIC's portion) to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), co-financed alongside Mizuho Bank (agent) and HSBC's Tokyo branch for a total facility of USD 3 billion. The loan is explicitly structured to support "stable imports of crude oil by Japanese companies" and is the seventh JBIC loan extended to ADNOC for this purpose. A companion MOU signed 4 November 2025 at ADIPEC 2025 broadens the JBIC-ADNOC partnership into downstream energy-transition sectors (hydrogen, ammonia, chemicals).

On 23 September 2025 the European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules (case SA.120081), a EUR 100 million budget increase to Portugal's scheme compensating energy-intensive companies for indirect emission costs — the higher electricity prices passed through from carbon costs under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The increase raises the scheme's total budget to EUR 275 million and was notified to avoid a significant reduction in per-company compensation levels for costs incurred during 2021-2030 (final payments due 2031). The Commission found the amended scheme continues to satisfy the ETS State aid Guidelines, which exist to prevent carbon leakage — energy-intensive firms relocating production outside the EU to jurisdictions with less ambitious climate policy.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued Notification No. 31/2025-26 on 23 September 2025, revising Appendix-3 of Schedule-II of the ITC(HS) Export Policy to add a new Category 7 — "Certain Emerging Technologies and related items" — to the SCOMET (Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies) list. Category 7 brings under export-licence control: quantum-computing systems (≥34 qubits with controlled error rates), cryogenic CMOS integrated circuits, advanced lithography tools (≤45 nm minimum resolvable feature), additive-manufacturing equipment under vacuum, and related software/technology. The notification took effect 30 days from issuance, on 23 October 2025, and is the first new SCOMET category created since the list's last major restructure, aligning India's strategic-trade-control regime with parallel US BIS, Wassenaar Arrangement, and EU dual-use list updates.

The European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1901 on 22 September 2025, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of glyoxylic acid (CAS 298-12-4, purity ≥95%, CN code ex 2918 30 00, TARIC 2918300013) originating in China for five years. Duty rates are differentiated by exporter: Hubei Hongyuan 29.2%, Xinjiang Guolin 130.0%, other cooperating producers 64.0%, and all non-cooperating Chinese imports 210.5%. The regulation definitively collects provisional duties previously imposed under Regulation (EU) 2025/591 (up to 280.3% provisional rates) from 24 March 2025.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1045 of 12 May 2026, imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of certain alkyl phosphonic acids and their sodium salts originating in the People's Republic of China — specifically 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylic acid (PBTC) and its sodium salt (Tetrasodium hydrogen 2-phosphonatobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylate, PBTC-Na4), in solid form or aqueous solution, falling under CN code 2931 49 80. Provisional duties range from 182.9% to 219.4% depending on the exporting producer. The measure entered into force on 14 May 2026, the day after publication in the Official Journal, and follows an investigation initiated on 18 September 2025 pursuant to a complaint lodged on 7 August 2025 by LANXESS Deutschland GmbH. PBTC is a scale-inhibitor/chelating agent used in industrial water treatment, oilfield services and detergent formulation.

SARS inserted rebate item 460.06/1516.20.90/01.08 into Part 2 of Schedule No. 4 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Government Gazette 53334, Notice R.6597, 12 September 2025), giving effect to ITAC Report No. 739. The item creates a temporary full duty rebate — palm oil currently attracts a 10% general import duty — on palm oil (not fractionated, partly or wholly hydrogenated, refined but not further prepared) used to manufacture soaps and organic surface-active products (HS 3401.1). ITAC found palm oil cannot be grown anywhere within the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for climatic reasons and that domestically available soft oils (sunflower, soybean) are not a viable substitute without costly reformulation, so it recommended waiving the duty on the applicant's behalf. Applicant: Unilever South Africa.

On 12 September 2025 the UK government, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated 3 individuals and 27 entities — 19 Russian, plus third-country intermediaries in Thailand (3), Hong Kong (3), India (1) and Türkiye (1) accused of supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used in Russian missile and weapons production — and proscribed 70 vessels (oil tankers and cargo ships, identified by IMO number) linked to Russia's shadow fleet evading the G7 crude price cap. The package brings the UK's cumulative tanker designations to nearly 500, more than any other single jurisdiction.