Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

India's Ministry of Railways issued a tender for construction of railway infrastructure between Borivali and Virar stations (part of the Mumbai Suburban Railway 5th/6th line quadrupling project) that embeds a domestic-supplier preference margin under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, restricting or giving a bid-evaluation advantage to Class-I local suppliers across civil-engineering and general-construction categories. Global Trade Alert records the intervention as announced/implemented 27 August 2025; the underlying tender reference and contract value sit behind GTA's account-gated view and were not independently confirmed.

On 20 August 2025 the UK government, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated three individuals and five entities — OJSC Capital Bank of Central Asia, Grinex LLC, CJSC Tengricoin, Old Vector LLC (all Kyrgyzstan-based) and Altair Holding SA (Luxembourg-based) — for helping Russia evade Western financial sanctions via opaque Kyrgyz banking channels and cryptocurrency rails. The designations target the A7A5 rouble-backed stablecoin network, which the FCDO says moved USD 9.3bn in transactions over four months, and the Grinex/Meer crypto exchanges used to convert and route the proceeds; designated parties face UK asset freezes and trust-services prohibitions.

The US Department of Commerce initiated a countervailing-duty (CVD) investigation of certain freight rail couplers and parts thereof from India (case C-533-941) on 18 August 2025, covering the period of investigation 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025. On 27 February 2026 Commerce issued a preliminary affirmative determination, published in the Federal Register 3 March 2026, finding countervailable subsidy rates of 6.02% for Kharagpur Metal Reforming Industries, 5.47% for Texmaco Rail & Engineering, and 5.90% for all other Indian producers/exporters; Jupiter Wagons and Bhilai Engineering Corporation were assigned a 64.27% adverse-facts-available rate after failing to respond to Commerce's quantity-and-value questionnaire. Commerce aligned the CVD final determination with the companion antidumping final determination. 2024 US imports of the subject product totaled roughly $5.6 million (2.07 million kg).

The US Department of Commerce initiated less-than-fair-value investigations of certain freight rail couplers and parts thereof from the Czech Republic (case A-851-806) and India (case A-533-940) on 12 August 2025, covering the period of investigation 1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025. On 6 May 2026 Commerce issued preliminary affirmative determinations, finding dumping margins of 60.05% for the Czech Republic and 5.32% for India, and imposed provisional antidumping cash-deposit requirements at those rates effective the same date; the final determination was postponed. A parallel preliminary affirmative countervailing-duty determination for India was published 3 March 2026 (case C-533-941). Commerce postponed the original preliminary deadline (initially due 9 March 2026) via a 23 February 2026 notice citing a lapse-in-appropriations tolling of deadlines and an EDIS filing backlog.

Thailand's Cabinet approved a THB 2,459.97 million (approx. USD 71 million) investment for the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to procure 946 new bogie freight container flatcars, to be assembled domestically using a mix of local and imported components. The new cars replace ageing rolling stock and expand freight capacity by over 9 million tonnes annually, supporting SRT's 2023-2027 strategic plan and the dual-track rail expansion programme. Approved at the Cabinet meeting of 2025-08-05.

On 4 August 2025, IRCON International Limited — a Government of India public-sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways — launched a tender for the manufacture, supply, transportation and delivery of 60 kg Prime Rail (13M length) of Grade IRS-T-1, valued at INR 97.37 crore (approx. USD 11.7 million). The tender embeds a domestic-content preference under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 (as amended), consistent with the wider batch of India localisation-preference tenders already tracked in this register. GTA records the intervention as announced/implemented on 4 August 2025.

Poland's Centre for EU Transport Projects (CUPT), acting under State aid scheme SA.114259 cleared by the European Commission on 8 October 2024, signed co-financing agreements worth EUR 47.2 million (part of a PLN 482 million / ~85%-intensity aid envelope) to install ERTMS Baseline 3 Release 2-or-higher train-control equipment on new and modernised railway rolling stock. The scheme is financed under Poland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO) and covers up to 85% of eligible ERTMS equipment and retrofit costs for rail vehicle owners/operators bringing rolling stock into line with EU rail-interoperability rules.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 768, dated 25 July 2025 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 28 July 2025, amending the single annex of Resolução Gecex nº 311/2022 — the Ex-Tarifário regime that grants temporary reduced (typically 0%) import-duty rates on trucks, trailers/semi-trailers, motorised chassis, bodies/cabins, road tractors, and agricultural/self-propelled road machinery tariff lines for which no equivalent domestic production exists. The amendment took effect 4 August 2025. Global Trade Alert classifies the measure as a "Red" (trade-restrictive/discriminatory) import- tariff intervention, consistent with its treatment of GECEX's narrow, discretionary Ex-Tarifário product-line grants as favouring specific importers rather than liberalising trade economy-wide.

On 18 July 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted the 18th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1494 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral measures), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1476 implementing Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings), Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/1495 (vessel listings), and Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1472 (parallel Belarus measures). The package is the largest energy-sector escalation since 2022 and pivots from new-perimeter creation toward enforcement and circumvention closure. Headline measures: (i) the Russian-crude price cap is lowered from USD 60 to USD 47.6 per barrel with a new automatic dynamic mechanism re-indexing the cap to global oil prices every six months at a 15 % discount to the 22-week trailing average (effective 3 Sep 2025, with a transitional exemption to 18 Oct 2025 for pre-20 Jul 2025 contracts compliant with the prior cap); (ii) full transaction ban extended to 22 additional Russian banks, bringing the total cut off from the EU financial system to 45; transaction ban extended to third-country financial institutions and crypto-asset service providers facilitating circumvention; (iii) full transaction ban on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines; (iv) import ban on refined oil products derived from Russian crude processed in third countries; (v) 105 additional vessels added to the shadow-fleet port-access ban (cumulative total 444); (vi) 26 new entities added to Annex IV military end-user list (15 Russian + 11 from China/Hong Kong/Turkey); (vii) Council Implementing Regulation 2025/1476 lists 14 individuals + 41 entities under asset-freeze, including a major Indian refinery (Nayara Energy, part-owned by Rosneft), three Chinese suppliers of battlefield goods, shadow-fleet operators, and entities involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children; (viii) parallel Belarus complementary measures via Regulation 2025/1472. Wind-down periods vary: 90 days for oil-price-cap contracts; banking-software wind-down to 30 Sep 2025; trade-goods wind-downs Oct 2025–Jan 2026 by category. Entry into force on 19 July 2025 (day following publication in the Official Journal), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

The European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules (case SA.118317), a €300 million Slovak scheme to support railway undertakings and rolling-stock owners purchasing new rail freight wagons. Support takes the form of direct grants covering up to 50% of acquisition costs, capped at €200 million per applicant. The Commission assessed the scheme under Article 93 TFEU (transport coordination aid) and found it consistent with the EU's modal-shift goal of moving freight from road to rail.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 756, de 7 de julho de 2025, amending Annexes V, VI and X of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021, the instrument that adapted Brazil's Common Mercosur Nomenclature/Common External Tariff schedule to the 2022 Harmonized System revision). The amendment changes import tariffs and tariff-rate quotas for a narrow set of product lines including airport fire-fighting vehicles (NCM 8705.30.00), sterile saline flush and elevator guide rails, with a companion Portaria Secex nº 410/2025 setting the quota-allocation criteria. Global Trade Alert flags China, Germany and Italy as the principal affected trading partners.

New Zealand Customs Service, acting under section 8 of the Tariff Act 1988, published Tariff Concession Approvals, Withdrawals and Declines Notice (No. 18) 2025 in the Gazette on 4 July 2025. The notice withdraws 16 previously approved duty-free tariff concessions spanning laminated films, building panels, filtering and aggregate-processing equipment, thermostatic valves, railway safety systems and anti-pollution barriers, effective 14 days from publication, with importers given one calendar month to lodge objections. This is a routine, periodic administrative tariff-concession withdrawal cycle rather than a discrete policy announcement.

The Australian Border Force published Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. TC 25/25 on 2 July 2025 under sections 269K and 269R of the Customs Act 1901, covering new Tariff Concession Order (TCO) applications and TCOs made for goods not produced domestically (solvents, adhesives, geotextiles, ceramics, glass fibre fabric, HDPE/LLDPE resins, subsea and rail hardware), each carrying a 5% general-tariff duty-free concession, plus revocations and a cheese quota allocation notice. This is a routine, periodic administrative tariff-concession cycle rather than a discrete policy announcement.

On 2 May 2025, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a loan of up to PLN 2,580 million (approximately EUR 605 million) with Polish state long-distance rail operator PKP Intercity to finance the "PKP Intercity Fleet Renewal and Expansion II" project, against a total project cost of roughly PLN 5,160 million (EUR 1.21 billion). The financing covers new electric and bi-mode locomotives, bi-mode multiple units, passenger coaches, and coach modernisation, predominantly for Public Service Contract long-distance services within Poland and limited cross-border routes. Global Trade Alert logs the agreement as a "red" state-loan intervention on the grounds that EIB financing to a state-owned rail operator constitutes below-market state-linked support.

Japan's Cabinet approved an amendment to the Cabinet Order on Inward Direct Investment under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA) on 1 April 2025; the order was promulgated 4 April 2025 and entered into force 19 May 2025. The amendment introduces two new investor categories — Type-A (investors legally or contractually obligated to share information with foreign governments) and Type-B (investors effectively in a comparable position without formal legal obligation) — and eliminates or narrows exemptions from mandatory prior-notification screening for both categories. The primary driver is concern over minority-stake acquisitions by Chinese investors in Japanese listed companies operating in sensitive sectors including cloud computing, telecommunications infrastructure, semiconductor equipment, and advanced electronics. The reform is structurally distinct from the outbound FEFTA catch-all controls overhaul (2025-10-09) and from the Economic Security Promotion Act (2022-05-18); it is the inbound FDI-screening complement to that framework.

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

The National Assembly of the Lao PDR adopted the amended Law on Investment Promotion (No. 62/NA) on 28 June 2024; it entered into force on 16 December 2024, replacing the 2016 Investment Promotion Law and the 2019 Article-12 amendment. The statute spans 13 parts and 109 articles (62 amended, 32 new) and establishes the foundational legal architecture for domestic and foreign investment in Laos, setting out promotion categories, fiscal-incentive regimes, one-stop-service approval pathways, and investor-protection guarantees. Key reforms tighten the framework for large strategic-sector FDI in mining and hydropower — requiring partial state ownership — while expanding CIT/tax-holiday and customs-duty exemptions by SEZ category and sector-promotion zone. The law operationalises the Investment Promotion and Management Committee (IPMC) as the one-stop regulatory authority, enhancing alignment with the Lao-China Railway-driven Chinese-FDI surge and positioning Laos within the ASEAN horizontal investment-promotion reform wave.

On 16 February 2024 the European Commission opened case FSP.100147, the first-ever in-depth Phase II investigation under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR, Regulation 2022/2560), to examine whether Chinese state-owned CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive Co. Ltd. received foreign subsidies enabling it to submit an unduly advantageous tender for a EUR 614 million Bulgarian Ministry of Transport contract covering 20 zero-emission electric push-pull trains and 15 years of maintenance. The Commission identified approximately EUR 1.745 billion in total foreign financial contributions to CRRC — roughly five times the bid value. CRRC withdrew its tender on 26 March 2024 before the Commission could issue a final decision; the Commission closed the investigation following the withdrawal.

On 3 February 2024 Guinea's National Transition Council (CNT) ratified three inter-linked conventions structuring the Simandou integrated iron-ore mega-project: (i) the co-development agreement for the 670km Trans-Guinéen rail and Morebaya/Forécariah port, executed via the Compagnie du TransGuinéen (CTG) JV between the Republic of Guinea, Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) and Rio Tinto Simfer; (ii) the WCS operating framework for blocks 1–2; and (iii) the bilateral adjustments to Simfer's amended-and-consolidated base convention covering blocks 3–4 with Rio Tinto and Chinalco/Baowu participation. Estimated integrated capex USD 15–20bn; first commercial shipment from Forécariah occurred in November 2025 with President Mamadi Doumbouya attending. At full ramp Simandou is designed for ~120 Mt/yr of high-grade (~65% Fe) ore — the largest single addition to seaborne iron-ore supply since Vale's S11D (2016).

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

Canada registered SOR/2023-46 on 2023-03-10, amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations to add section 3.14 and a new Schedule 11. The section prohibits any person in Canada, and any Canadian outside Canada, from importing, purchasing or acquiring the listed steel and aluminum goods from Russia or from any person in Russia. Schedule 11 covers HS Chapter 72 (iron and steel), HS 7301-7306 (sheet piling, railway material, tubes, pipes and profiles) and aluminum products. Goods under a contract entered into before the regulations came into force are exempt; the regulations took effect on registration.

Angola's Ministry of Transport formalised a 30-year concession to Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR — Trafigura 49.5% / Mota-Engil 49.5% / Vecturis S.A. 1%) for the operation, management and maintenance of the Lobito Corridor — comprising the 1,300 km Benguela Railway from the Port of Lobito to Luau (Angola-DRC border) and the Lobito port mineral terminal. The international tender was won on 4 November 2022; the concession contract was signed on 4 July 2023 at a ceremony attended by the Presidents of Angola, the DRC and Zambia. LAR commenced operations in January 2024. The concession is paired with the trilateral Lobito Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency Agreement (LCTTFA), signed at Lobito Port on 27 January 2023 by the Transport ministers of Angola, the DRC and Zambia, which establishes the cross-border customs/transit framework for the corridor.

The CHIPS and Science Act (Public Law 117-167), signed into law by President Biden on 9 August 2022, appropriated $52.7 billion in direct semiconductor industry support: $39B in manufacturing incentives administered by the Commerce Department, $13.2B for R&D and workforce, and $0.5B for legacy-chip and supply-chain programs. It also created an Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (Section 48D) — a 25% refundable investment tax credit on qualified semiconductor manufacturing property. The law included a "guardrails" clause prohibiting recipients from expanding advanced-node capacity in countries of concern (most prominently China) for 10 years following award.

The Union Cabinet approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel on 22 July 2021; the scheme was notified in the Gazette of India on 29 July 2021 by the Ministry of Steel and detailed scheme guidelines were published on 20 October 2021. Total outlay: Rs 6,322 crore (~USD 850m) over five years (FY 2024-25 through FY 2028-29). The scheme covers five product categories (coated/plated products, high-strength / wear-resistant steel, specialty rails, alloy steel and steel wires, and electrical steel) across 19 sub-categories, and offers incentives of 4-12% on incremental sales for end-to-end domestic specialty-steel production with melted-and-poured input requirement. PLI 1.1 reopened applications on 6 January 2025; PLI 1.2 (third round) was launched in 2025-2026 with a revised four-category / 22-sub-category structure and incentive rates up to 15%.