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

MOFCOM Announcement No. 69 of 2025 (商务部公告2025年第69号), issued 29 October 2025 by the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Trade Division, sets China's total 2026-calendar-year export quotas for seven quota-managed goods: licorice and licorice products (5.2 million kg), artificially cultivated medicinal ephedra (1.0289 million kg), sawn timber (150,000 cubic metres), cattail and cattail products (16 million kg), and — specifically for the Hong Kong and Macao markets — live pigs (160.54 million head), live cattle (22,000 head) and live chickens for Hong Kong (3 million birds). Export traders apply to MOFCOM (via provincial commerce departments) for quota certificates, which are then presented to customs for export permits; licorice and cattail quotas are allocated by competitive bidding, the rest by application. The application window ran 1-15 November 2025, with MOFCOM allocating quotas to qualified applicants by 15 December 2025.

MOFCOM Announcement No. 68 of 2025 (商务部公告2025年第68号), issued on 26 October 2025, sets the application requirements and procedures for state-owned trading enterprises (STEs) authorised to export tungsten, antimony and silver during the 2026-2027 cycle. The notice formalises a quota review and joint-approval gate operated through the Key Export Supervision Catalog under MOFCOM's foreign-trade STE authority — distinct from the Export Control Law dual-use regime used in Announcement No. 10 of February 2025. Silver is added for the first time to the STE-managed list, framed by MOFCOM as defence of strategic supply for defence, electronics and photovoltaics. Approved-exporter lists were published in a follow-on review-results notice; the new regime applies to export shipments dated 1 January 2026 onwards.

The European Investment Bank signed the first tranche (EUR 102.9 million, CZK 2.5 billion) of a EUR 381.8 million (CZK 9.28 billion) financing package with CEPS, the Czech state-owned electricity transmission system operator, on 20 October 2025. The loan, approved by the EIB board on 13 August 2025, finances reinforcement and modernisation of the Czech 400kV transmission network over 2025-2030, covering refurbishment and addition of 509km of lines, out of a total project cost of CZK 12.37 billion (approx. EUR 506 million). A second tranche (EUR 278.9 million) was signed 5 February 2026.

On 19 October 2025 the UK government announced an additional GBP 20 million each for Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and Glasgow City Region under the GBP 500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), topping up their original GBP 30 million earmarked allocation (June 2025 Spending Review) to GBP 50 million per region. The three areas were the first cohort to run UKRI's predecessor Innovation Accelerators programme. Funds are channelled through UKRI to local "triple helix" partnerships (civic institutions, business, universities) for innovation-cluster projects in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, AI adoption, and clean-energy/fuel technologies. The announcement preceded the 21 October 2025 Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.

On 18 October 2025 the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a package of amendments to the Defence and Security Industry Law (XIV-2647, originally adopted May 2024), the Law on Public Procurement in Security and Defence, the Law on Control of Weapons and Ammunition, and cross-cutting territorial-planning and construction laws. The central measure, proposed by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation (EIMIN), replaces the full construction-permit requirement for defence-production facilities with a notification-of-commencement procedure, compressing typical procurement-to-groundbreaking timelines from approximately 2–2.5 years to a few months. Complementary provisions reserve public-land investment plots for defence projects, enable defence-industry development outside designated military territories, and enshrine industrial cooperation as a procurement principle requiring foreign OEMs fulfilling Lithuanian defence contracts to source a defined share of obligations from Lithuanian-registered entities. The package directly enables inbound defence-industrial FDI from Rheinmetall (155 mm artillery-shell JV) and the Northrop Grumman / Nammo medium-calibre ammunition programme at the state-owned Giraitė Armament Factory.

China's Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs and State Taxation Administration jointly issued Announcement 2025 No. 10, restructuring VAT refund support across the power-generation sector effective 1 November 2025. Offshore wind power producers gain a new 50% immediate VAT refund running through 31 December 2027, while the prior immediate-refund policy for onshore wind power (in force since 2015 under Cai Shui [2015] No. 74) is repealed outright. Nuclear plants approved but not yet commercially operating as of 31 October 2025 receive a 50% collected-then-refunded VAT rebate for ten years from first commercial operation, but nuclear projects approved after 1 November 2025 receive no VAT refund at all. The measure reallocates state fiscal support within China's power sector toward offshore wind and legacy-pipeline nuclear capacity while withdrawing it from onshore wind and future nuclear approvals.

On 15 October 2025 the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) launched a CAD 700 million loan guarantee program to help softwood sawmills, lumbermills and remanufacturers access new term loans and letters of credit through their existing financial institutions. The guarantees are aimed at easing the collateral and duty-payment strain created by US tariff and countervailing/antidumping exposure, effective immediately from announcement. The program was later topped up by a further CAD 500 million on 26 November 2025 (filed separately), bringing total guarantee capacity to roughly CAD 1.2 billion.

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.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) jointly issued Announcement No. 58 of 2025 on 9 October 2025, adding high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (cells and packs, >=300 Wh/kg), artificial graphite anode materials, related production equipment, and key manufacturing technologies to the dual-use export control list under licence requirement. The controls were scheduled to take effect 8 November 2025 but were suspended the day before via Announcement No. 70 (2025), which deferred entry-into-force until 10 November 2026 in the context of the US-China Busan economic-trade arrangement. Controls remain legislatively adopted and will become operative unless the suspension is renewed or withdrawn.

China's Ministry of Commerce on 9 October 2025 issued Announcements No. 61 and No. 62, jointly constituting the largest single architectural escalation of PRC export controls to date. No. 61 expands the controlled rare-earth list from 7 to 12 of 17 elements (adding holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, ytterbium) and — for the first time — imposes extraterritorial application via a 0.1% de-minimis rule, a foreign-direct-product (FDP) rule, and a 50%-affiliate rule, directly mirroring US BIS architecture. No. 62 places rare-earth extraction, smelting, separation, magnet manufacturing, and recycling technologies (including IP licensing, investment, and provision to foreign persons) under export licensing. PRC-direct exports were controlled from publication; the de-minimis and FDP offshore-items provisions were due to take effect 1 December 2025. On 7 November 2025 MOFCOM Announcement No. 70 suspended both measures until 10 November 2026 as part of the post-APEC Trump-Xi tariff detente — see amendments block.

China's Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism, led by MOFCOM, issued Announcement [2025] No. 10 on 9 October 2025 designating 14 foreign entities — Dedrone by Axon Inc., DZYNE Technologies Incorporated, Elbit Systems of America LLC, Epirus Inc., AeroVironment Inc., Exelis Inc., Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC, BAE Systems Inc., Teledyne FLIR LLC, VSE Corporation, Cubic Global Defense, Recorded Future Inc., the Halifax International Security Forum, and TechInsights Inc. (with nine named subsidiaries) — for engaging in military-technical cooperation with Taiwan, harmful statements concerning China, and assisting foreign governments in suppressing Chinese enterprises. The measures (i) prohibit the listed entities from China-related import-export activity, (ii) ban new investment in Chinese territory, and (iii) for the first time under the UEL framework explicitly prohibit Chinese organisations and individuals from transmitting data or providing sensitive information to the listed entities. Issued the same day as MOFCOM/GAC Announcements No. 61/62 extending rare-earth export controls extraterritorially under a 0.1% de minimis content rule, the package marks the first UEL deployment targeting counter-drone original equipment manufacturers and the first to introduce a data-transmission restriction.

On 8 October 2025 the Australian Government (Albanese) and Queensland Government (Crisafulli) jointly announced up to AUD 600 million in co-funding — split evenly at AUD 300 million each — to keep Glencore's Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery operating through at least 2028. Funding is structured as three tranches of up to AUD 200 million released over three years, contingent on completion of a transformation study and further review points. The package protects more than 600 direct jobs at the smelter/refinery plus roughly 500 further jobs at the adjacent Phosphate Hill facility, and preserves roughly half of Australia's total copper smelting capacity. It follows Glencore's October 2023 announcement of intended closure and a July 2025 end-of-operations notice, with Glencore describing the deal as a short-term lifeline after absorbing sustained financial losses.

The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) formally introduced a Rare Earth Mining Management Regulation in October 2025, establishing permit procedures, investor obligations, environmental protection rules, chemical-use standards, labour provisions, and enforcement mechanisms for the heavy-rare-earth (HREE) mining industry it controls in Chipwi and Pangwa townships of Kachin State. The KIO assumed de facto territorial governance of Kachin Special Region No. 1 in October 2024 following KIA military operations, inheriting authority over hundreds of Chinese-operated extraction sites that collectively supply an estimated 60–70 % of China's heavy rare earth oxide imports (~41,700 t in 2023) — the proximate basis for China's ~95 % global market share in terbium, dysprosium, and holmium. The regulation formalises a permit-and-tax regime that includes an export levy of approximately 35,000 CNY/tonne (~USD 4,800), with export permission first reactivated by KIO on 27 March 2025 after a post-takeover suspension of all mining and export activity.

China's Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, General Administration of Customs, and State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued Announcement No. 54 of 2025 on 26 September 2025, imposing export licence management on pure electric passenger vehicles (HS 8703801090, motor vehicles equipped solely with an electric drive motor and bearing a VIN), effective 1 January 2026. Only vehicle manufacturers and their authorised distributors may apply, and only for their own-brand output; eligibility criteria require Category I exporters to maintain more than 50 overseas after-sales service and maintenance outlets, a minimum 20% spare-parts inventory rate, and a maximum 48-hour maintenance response time in major export markets. The measure is framed by Beijing as shifting the NEV export sector "from scale expansion to quality first" and curbing non-compliant, low-accountability export practices.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 51 of 2025 on 25 September 2025, adding three US entities — Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HII, the largest US military shipbuilder), Planate Management Group, and Global Dimensions LLC — to China's Export Control List (出口管制 管控名单), effective the same day. The listing prohibits Chinese exporters from supplying dual-use items to the three firms and requires any ongoing related export activity to cease immediately. MOFCOM cited the firms' "military-technical cooperation with China's Taiwan region" as the trigger, issued in parallel with a same-day Unreliable Entity List designation of three other US firms (Saronic Technologies, Aerkomm, Oceaneering International).

President Trump signed Executive Order "Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security" on September 25, 2025, certifying a restructuring plan as a "qualified divestiture" under the 2024 PAFACA law and directing the Attorney General not to enforce the Act for 120 days while the transaction closes. The plan creates TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, valued at roughly $14 billion, with a new US-investor consortium (Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX at 15% each, plus other investors, totaling 50%), affiliates of existing ByteDance investors holding 30.1%, and ByteDance itself retaining 19.9%. Oracle will run US data storage and algorithm retraining/oversight; the deal closed January 22, 2026.

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.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES signed a BRL 2.5 billion (~USD 471.6 million) financing contract with Starnav Serviços Marítimos on 22 September 2025 in Itajaí (Santa Catarina), drawing on the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM). The loan covers just over 88% of the ~BRL 2.9 billion cost of eight hybrid (diesel-electric with battery banks) multipurpose offshore support vessels — four Platform Supply Vessels (PSV) and four Oil Spill Recovery Vessels (OSRV), each 5,500 dwt — to be built at the Detroit Brasil shipyard in Itajaí. The vessels will be chartered to state oil company Petrobras under 12-year contracts to support offshore oil and gas production, and the project is projected to generate 1,400 direct and 6,300 indirect jobs. The announcement was part of a wider BRL 3.3 billion BNDES package for Santa Catarina covering naval, highway and agroindustry financing.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, announced on 2025-09-17 a US$500 million strategic private placement in TSX/NYSE-listed Ivanhoe Mines, subscribing for 57,516,666 common shares at C$12.00/share; the placement closed 2025-09-29, giving QIA approximately 4% of Ivanhoe's issued and outstanding shares. On 2025-11-21 the two parties announced a follow-on memorandum of understanding to collaborate on exploration, development and preferential financing of critical-minerals projects across Africa, including support for Ivanhoe's Western Forelands exploration programme in the DRC. Ivanhoe's principal assets are the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex (DRC) and the Platreef platinum-palladium-nickel project (South Africa).

On 29 August 2025 the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce issued Notice 沪商外资〔2025〕271号 opening the 2025 annual application round for the Shanghai Multinational Corporation Regional Headquarters Development Fund, implementing the underlying scheme 沪商规〔2025〕3号 ("Measures to Support the Enhancement of Multinational Corporation Regional Headquarters," effective 1 March 2025 - 28 February 2030). The fund pays tiered one-time and multi-year cash awards, jointly financed by municipal and district fiscal budgets, to multinationals that establish or upgrade regional headquarters, global R&D centers, or corporate functions (finance, procurement, R&D) in Shanghai. Applications for the 2025 round were due 22 September 2025.

Presidential Decree No. 593 of 25 August 2025 amends the standing schedule of foreign-owned Russian assets under "temporary management" (established by Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023), adding as item 44 the 314,949 thousand ordinary shares of JSC Chelyabenergoremont held by Fortum Holding B.V. (the Dutch holding vehicle of Finnish state-controlled utility Fortum), transferring control to Rosimushchestvo (Federal Agency for State Property Management). Fortum was the sole shareholder, so the decree effectively nationalises the entire company — a 70-year-old turbine and boiler-equipment maintenance and repair service provider for power plants, with reported 2023 revenue of RUB 2.35bn. The decree entered into force on its date of official publication and is one of a running series of company-specific amendments to Decree 302 following Fortum's 2022-23 exit announcement and the earlier seizure of its main generation subsidiary Fortum Russia B.V. (renamed Fora Energy) and of Unipro.

Turkish port authorities began requiring shipping agents to certify, from 21 August 2025, that vessels calling at Turkish ports have no Israeli ownership or agency ties and carry no military or hazardous cargo destined for Israel; Israeli-flagged or Israeli-linked ships were barred from Turkish ports outright, and Turkish-flagged vessels were barred from calling at Israeli ports. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed and formalised the measures — alongside a parallel closure of Turkish airspace to Israeli government/military flights — in an extraordinary session of the Grand National Assembly (TBMM) on 29 August 2025, stating Türkiye had "completely cut off trade with Israel." The measure operationalises and tightens enforcement of Türkiye's broader Israel trade suspension (in place since May 2024) by closing the maritime transshipment channel that had allowed indirect trade to continue.

India's Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), a central public-sector power utility under the Ministry of Power, issued Tender Document No. DVC/Tender/Head Quarter/SPE/CMM/Works and Service/00077/Capital on 20 August 2025 for the survey, design, supply, and replacement of existing conductors with high-temperature low-sag (HTLS) conductors on its 132kV D/C transmission lines. The tender restricts eligibility to 'Class-I local suppliers' under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, giving domestic manufacturers a bid-evaluation advantage in the electrical-equipment/civil-engineering procurement category. Global Trade Alert records the intervention as announced/implemented 20 August 2025; the underlying contract value and full tender scope sit behind GTA's account-gated view and were not independently confirmed via trade press.

On 20 August 2025 Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced a supplementary KRW 100 billion (approx. USD 71.5 million) round of concessional loans under the 2025 Carbon-Neutral Transition Pioneer Project, recruiting applicants from 21 August to 19 September 2025. Loans carry a 1.3% annual interest rate, a 10-year term (3-year grace period plus 7 equal annual installments), and are capped at KRW 50 billion in facility financing per company plus a separate KRW 10 billion R&D-loan ceiling, funding greenhouse-gas-reduction facilities and R&D. EU CBAM-exposed industries, companies with government-approved business-restructuring plans, and firms selected for the "Net Zero Challenge X" program receive priority evaluation points.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved a BRL 186.1 million (~USD 33.6 million) financing operation for Bram Offshore Transportes Marítimos Ltda, part of the US Edison Chouest Offshore group and the largest offshore-support vessel operator in Brazil. The loan, drawn from the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM), covers 90% of a BRL 206.8 million project to repair, modernise and convert 15 support vessels — including hybrid-propulsion retrofits (battery installation) on at least one Petrobras-chartered vessel — at the Navship shipyard in Navegantes, Santa Catarina. The same BNDES announcement included a separate BRL 53.2 million FMM loan to Estaleiro Navship Ltda to resume pandemic-halted shipyard works at Porto do Açu (São João da Barra, RJ).

Poland's Sejm adopted on 25 July 2025 — and the President signed on 5 August 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1080, in force 7 September 2025) — a Special Act on Strategic Investments in the Field of National Defence and Public Security that creates an accelerated authorisation track for defence and public- security infrastructure projects: a single combined administrative decision issued within 90 days of application, simplified notification regime inside closed military zones, replacement of full environmental and water-law assessments with targeted mitigation, and an exemption from the Public Procurement Law for Ministry-of-National-Defence-cleared unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned weapon platforms and counter-drone systems. The statute is the procedural backbone for Poland's PLN 187bn 2025 defence budget (≈4.7% of GDP, the highest share in NATO) and dovetails with Poland's €43.7bn EU SAFE defence-loan allocation signed in May 2026.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1564 of 24 July 2025 is the EU's largest-ever trade countermeasure package: additional customs duties on approximately €93 billion of US-origin goods (Annexes I–XIII) plus an export prohibition on specified EU products to the United States (Annex XIV), adopted under Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 (the EU commercial-policy enforcement regulation) in response to the second Trump administration's Section 232 reinstatement and automobile tariffs. The regulation supersedes and repeals Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/778 and three earlier rebalancing CIRs. Application was suspended from 5 August 2025 following the EU-US trade framework agreement of 27 July 2025; the suspension was extended by a further six months from 4 February 2026. CIR 2025/1564 remains in force as a conditionally-reinstateable rebalancing framework while negotiations continue.

India and the UK signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on 24 July 2025 in Chequers, with Prime Ministers Modi and Starmer presiding. The agreement grants duty-free access on 99% of Indian exports to the UK (textiles, apparel, footwear, auto components, engineering goods and chemicals), and reduces Indian tariffs on UK goods covering ~90% of tariff lines: Scotch whisky duties drop from 150% to 75% on day one and taper to 40% over ten years; high-end UK car tariffs fall from ~110% to 10% under a quota; UK MFN access on a wide industrial-goods envelope. A Double Contribution Convention exempts Indian secondees from UK National Insurance for three years. Bilateral trade currently ~£42 bn / USD 56 bn per year, with the parties targeting doubling by 2030. UK ratification under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) ran from January 2026, with the 21-sitting-day scrutiny period concluding 5 March 2026. Entry into force was delayed from the originally targeted May 2026 date and is now confirmed for July 15, 2026 following a UK Prime Minister announcement at the G7 Évian summit sidelines on June 17, 2026. The confirmed EIF covers 64% of UK exports (£1.9bn) duty-free immediately, with an additional £25.5bn/year in projected additional bilateral trade.

On 22 July 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two individuals and five entities under Executive Order 13224 for facilitating revenue generation and material support to the Houthis (Ansarallah) through petroleum importation and money laundering. The network — Muhammad Al-Sunaydar's Arkan Mars petroleum companies (Yemen/UAE) and Yahya Mohammed Al Wazir's Al-Saida Stone for Trading and Agencies and Amran Cement Factory — coordinated roughly $12 million of Iranian petroleum imports through the Houthi-controlled Ras Isa port with an Iranian IRGC-linked petrochemical trading entity, and laundered approximately €6 million through bulk-coal front-company transactions. The action builds on a cadence of OFAC designations against Houthi revenue and weapons-procurement networks running since mid-2024.

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.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) jointly issued Announcement No. 28 of 2025 on 15 July 2025, partially adjusting the "Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export" first published under Announcement No. 57 of 2023. The revision adds new restricted-export entries covering LFP/LMFP cathode electrode material preparation technology, lithium carbonate/lithium hydroxide preparation technology, and gallium processing technology, extending Beijing's export-control perimeter from raw critical minerals into upstream battery-material process technology. The same revision removed three unrelated entries (traditional Chinese architectural technology and building environment-control technology) from the prohibited/restricted lists. The catalogue took effect immediately upon publication and followed a January 2025 public-consultation draft.

On 15 July 2025 USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer initiated a Section 301 investigation into six categories of Brazilian "acts, policies, and practices" alleged to be unreasonable or discriminatory and to burden US commerce: (1) digital trade and electronic payment services (specifically the Banco Central do Brasil's operation of the Pix instant-payments system, alleged to disadvantage US payment providers); (2) unfair, preferential tariffs (Brazil's preferential tariff treatment for selected partners that excludes US exports); (3) anti-corruption enforcement (alleged interference with US-linked enforcement matters); (4) intellectual property protection (insufficient enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting); (5) ethanol market access (Brazil's reversal of near-zero ethanol tariffs imposed during the 2017-2024 window); and (6) illegal deforestation (the trade-distorting effect of unenforced environmental rules on Brazilian commodity exports). The Federal Register notice (USTR-2025-0043, FR doc 2025-13498) published on 18 July 2025 set written-comment and hearing-request deadlines for 18 August 2025 and a public hearing for 3 September 2025 at the US International Trade Commission. A determination on whether Brazil's practices are actionable, and what remedies (including retaliatory tariffs, withdrawal of trade concessions, or formal WTO action) USTR will pursue, is statutorily due within 12 months of initiation — i.e. by 15 July 2026.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 35 of 2025 on 9 July 2025, adding 8 Taiwan-based entities to its Dual-Use Items Export Control List under the Export Control Law and the Regulations on Export Control of Dual-Use Items. The listed firms — spanning aerospace/aviation, unmanned systems, and shipbuilding — are barred from receiving dual-use item exports from China; ongoing export activity to them must cease immediately, with exceptions only via case-by-case MOFCOM approval. The measure took effect the same day it was published.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 150 million loan agreement with Italian pharmaceutical group Alfasigma SpA on 8 July 2025 to finance the company's 2025-2027 research and development programme in rare diseases and specialty care (gastroenterology/hepatology, vascular medicine, rheumatology). The EIB framed the operation as part of its agenda to bolster competitiveness and innovation in the European healthcare sector. Global Trade Alert logged the announcement and implementation date as 27 June 2025 (state-act 92597); the EIB's own press release places the signing on 8 July 2025.

The UK's National Wealth Fund made a GBP 28.6 million equity investment in Peak Cluster, a CO2-transport pipeline connecting cement and lime producers in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and North West England to the Morecambe Net Zero offshore CO2 store in the Irish Sea. The investment is designed to unlock a further GBP 31 million from private partners Holcim, Tarmac, Breedon, SigmaRoc, Summit Energy Evolution and Progressive Energy, bringing total project equity to GBP 59.6 million. The pipeline is intended to decarbonise around 40% of the UK's cement and lime industry, preventing an estimated 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year and supporting roughly 3,500 jobs (2,000+ existing, ~300 new manufacturing, ~1,200 temporary construction), rising to 13,000 combined with the linked Morecambe Net Zero CO2-storage project.

New Zealand Customs Service, acting under section 8 of the Tariff Act 1988, published Tariff Concession Approvals, Withdrawals and Declines Notice (No. 17) 2025 in the Gazette on 4 July 2025. The notice grants new duty-free tariff concessions on goods across tariff items 3919-9405 (adhesive tapes and films, fibreglass products, industrial machinery, heating/cooling equipment, electronic controls and marine vessels) not manufactured domestically, effective 1 July 2025, while withdrawing a comparable set of prior concession approvals effective 30 June 2025. This is a routine, periodic administrative tariff-concession cycle rather than a discrete policy announcement.

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.

Türkiye's Grand National Assembly adopted Law No. 7552 (İklim Kanunu) on 2 July 2025, published in the Resmî Gazete on 9 July 2025 (Issue 32951) and entering into force immediately. The law is Türkiye's first comprehensive climate statute, establishing the legal framework for a national Emissions Trading System (ETS) — pilot phase from 2026, full implementation from 2028 — and creating the Carbon Market Board (Karbon Piyasası Kurulu) to govern allowance allocation and market operations. The ETS is designed for EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) compatibility, materially affecting Türkiye's steel, cement, aluminium, and fertilizer export sectors, for which the EU is the primary market.

On 1 July 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Aeza Group, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) provider, along with two affiliated companies and four Aeza Group leaders (Arsenii Penzev, Yuri Bozoyan, Vladimir Gast, Igor Knyazev), for supplying server infrastructure that shielded ransomware operators, infostealer groups, and darknet drug marketplaces from law-enforcement takedown. In coordination with the UK's National Crime Agency, OFAC also designated Aeza International Ltd., a UK front company Aeza used to lease IP addresses to cybercriminals. The action was taken under Executive Order 13694 (as amended by E.O. 14144 and E.O. 14306) and builds on OFAC's February 2025 designation of BPH provider ZServers.

Minister of Trade Regulation No. 20 of 2025, signed by Minister Budi Santoso on 30 June 2025 and effective 29 August 2025 (60 days after promulgation), reorganises Indonesia's import regime for chemicals, Hazardous Materials (B2), and a defined set of mining and energy inputs. The regulation revokes Permendag 8/2024 and requires holders of designated importer status (Importir Terdaftar / Importir Produsen) to secure an Import Approval (Persetujuan Impor) plus a post-arrival Surveyor Report (Laporan Surveyor) for an eleven-cluster commodity bundle including lubricant raw materials, cement clinker and cement, rough diamonds, non-pharmaceutical precursors, crude oil and natural gas, nitrocellulose, commercial-industrial explosives, ozone-depleting substances, hydrofluorocarbons, B2, and certain other chemicals (BKT). It is one of nine commodity-cluster Permendags issued the same day under the Prabowo administration's umbrella import-policy deregulation package.

China's Ministry of Finance, State Taxation Administration, and Ministry of Commerce jointly issued Announcement 2025 No. 2 on 2025-06-27, granting foreign investors a tax credit worth 10% of the amount of distributed profits from Chinese domestic enterprises that they reinvest domestically (or the applicable tax-treaty rate if lower), creditable against enterprise income tax on subsequent dividends, interest and royalties. The credit applies retroactively to qualifying reinvestments made between 2025-01-01 and the announcement date, and the scheme runs through 2028-12-31. Eligible reinvestment must go into industries listed in China's Catalogue of Industries Encouraged for Foreign Investment and be held for at least 5 years (60 months), with early withdrawal triggering proportional clawback.

On 26 June 2025 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed four acts constituting Nigeria's most comprehensive fiscal overhaul in decades: the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (NTA), Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 (NTAA), Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2025, and Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act 2025. The NTA consolidates and repeals six core statutes — CITA, PITA, PPTA, VAT Act, CGT Act, and Stamp Duties Act — into a single unified code effective 1 January 2026, while the NTAA standardises assessment, filing, and enforcement procedures across all federal taxes. The two establishment acts restructure the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) into the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) with a broadened mandate and create an empowered Joint Revenue Board to coordinate federal-state fiscal relations.

On 2025-06-25, Hong Kong's New Industrialisation Vetting Committee announced it had supported an application from J Cube Semiconductor (Hong Kong) Limited under the New Industrialisation Acceleration Scheme (NIAS) — the third project approved under the scheme. The project will establish production facilities for third-generation (silicon carbide, SiC) semiconductor wafers in Hong Kong, classed under the advanced-manufacturing-technology sector. Total project cost is estimated at over HKD 700 million, with expected NIAS government funding of up to HKD 200 million — the scheme's per-project cap. The same announcement introduced an enhancement measure for the related New Industrialisation Funding Scheme (NIFS).

South African Cabinet on 25 June 2025 approved a three-part package to revitalise the domestic ferrochrome sector: (i) placement of chrome ore under export control via the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) under the International Trade Administration Act 71 of 2002, requiring an export permit prior to dispatch; (ii) initiation of work on a chrome ore export tax (rate not finalised; market reporting cites 25%); (iii) expanded SEZ incentives for ferrochrome smelters and a negotiated electricity- tariff relief mechanism. The DTIC notice formally placing chrome ore under export control was published in Government Gazette No. 53477 General Notice 6712 on 3 October 2025 with a 30-day public-comment window closing 31 October 2025; the final permit regime takes effect upon subsequent ministerial gazette notice. South Africa accounts for >70% of seaborne chrome ore exports, so the regime is globally material to stainless-steel supply chains.

Nigeria's Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) revoked 1,263 mineral titles — comprising 584 exploration licences, 65 mining leases, 144 quarry licences, and 470 small-scale mining permits — after holders failed to pay annual service fees. A gazette notice was published on 19 June 2025, opening a 30-day cure period; following Remita-payment reconciliation, final revocations were executed in September 2025. The action brings total mineral titles revoked under the Tinubu–Alake administration to approximately 3,794, signalling systematic enforcement of the compliance framework set out in the 2023 7-Point Agenda.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) committed AUD 19.8 million to the NeoSmelt joint venture to fund a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a direct reduced iron-electric smelting furnace (DRI-ESF) pilot plant at Kwinana, Western Australia, aimed at proving Pilbara iron ore can be converted into lower-carbon iron without a coking-coal blast furnace. The consortium, founded by BlueScope, BHP and Rio Tinto, welcomed Woodside Energy and Mitsui Iron Ore Development as new equal-equity participants alongside the grant announcement. Total project cost is AUD 48.85 million, with the study running from May 2025 to August 2026 ahead of a targeted final investment decision.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a $3,882,797 civil settlement with Unicat Catalyst Technologies LLC, an Alvin, Texas-based specialty catalyst supplier, resolving 13 apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR, 31 CFR Part 560) and one apparent violation of the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations (VSR, 31 CFR Part 591). OFAC determined the conduct egregious; Unicat had voluntarily self-disclosed. The settlement was concurrent with separate actions by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). The violations, spanning 2016–2021, involved the supply of catalyst products and consulting services to Iranian customers via a Dutch affiliate and Chinese supplier, and the sale of catalysts to Orinoco Iron S.C.S., a blocked Venezuelan government-owned entity, routed through a Chinese intermediary.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed a $215,988,868 civil monetary penalty — the statutory maximum applicable — on GVA Capital Ltd., a Silicon Valley early-stage venture capital firm, for willful violations of Russia-related sanctions and for failure to comply with an administrative subpoena. The penalty resolves conduct in which GVA, after its founding investor Suleiman Kerimov (a Russian oligarch and Federal Assembly member) was designated as a Specially Designated National in April 2018, continued for approximately three years to manage and attempt to liquidate Kerimov's $20 million investment in a Delaware special-purpose vehicle linked to Prosperity Investments, L.P. (a Guernsey-domiciled fund in which Kerimov retained a property interest). OFAC determined the conduct was egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed. The action is the first public OFAC enforcement of the second Trump administration and the largest OFAC civil penalty since the November 2023 Binance Holdings settlement; it is also OFAC's first major enforcement action against a U.S. venture-capital / investment-adviser firm.

The Australian Border Force published Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. TC 25/22 on 11 June 2025 under sections 269K, 269R and 269SE of the Customs Act 1901. The gazette lists new Tariff Concession Order (TCO) applications, eight TCOs made (moving corrosion inhibitors, compostable- film polymers, furnace cooling systems, aseptic food-processing machinery, reverse-osmosis filters, oilfield drilling parts and pallet-manufacturing robotics from the 5% general tariff rate to duty-free), one withdrawn application, and five local-manufacturer-initiated TCO revocations (reinstating the 5% general tariff rate on steel access-box, formwork and crown-seal products effective 22-24 January 2025). This is a routine, periodic administrative tariff-concession cycle rather than a discrete policy announcement.