Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Taiwan's Executive Yuan on 11 September 2025 passed the special budget "Central Government Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and Livelihood National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances," allocating NT$46 billion (approx. USD 1.5 billion) to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for four industry-support measures aimed at firms hurt by US tariffs. The four measures — preferential export-loan guarantees, SME diversified-development loans, R&D/equipment-transformation subsidies, and overseas-market-expansion subsidies — had already been soft-launched on 7 August 2025 under an emergency "shift funds to urgent need first" principle, with the September budget formalising and funding them. As of the government's mid-October 2025 status update, over 1,200 applications had been received across the four programmes, generating roughly NT$8.9 billion in approved financing.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 788, de 10 de setembro 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 six new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas: spray-dry detergent powder (800,000 t/year), vitamin B12 (20 t/year), the cell therapy Tisagenlecleucel (48 units), sulphur black dye (6,000 t/year), elastomultiester bicomponent polyester synthetic filament (1,100 t/year), and high-voltage (345kV-class) electrical cable (1,550 t/year). Quotas run for one year from their individual validity start dates, which range from 15 September 2025 to 22 January 2026 depending on product, granting duty-free entry within volume caps where Mercosur-region supply is judged insufficient.

On 3 September 2025 South Korea's Financial Services Commission announced an expanded KRW 1 trillion (approx. USD 720 million) Corporate Restructuring Fund No.6 (기업구조혁신펀드 6호), scaling up from the KRW 500 billion originally budgeted in the 2025 first supplementary budget. The fund targets marginal ("한계기업") companies in six export-oriented key industries — petrochemicals, steel, automotive, semiconductors, displays and secondary batteries — whose financial position is deteriorating due to recent US tariff actions. KAMCO ran a fund-manager recruitment call from 3-24 September 2025, selecting four operators to run blind funds, with formation targeted for October 2025. At least 60% of raised capital must be invested in the six target industries, and the subordinated (first-loss) capital contribution ratio was raised from 5% to 10% versus prior restructuring funds to attract private co-investment.

On 3 September 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Guangzhou Tengyue Chemical Co., Ltd., a China-based chemical manufacturer, along with two of its representatives, Huang Xiaojun and Huang Zhanpeng, pursuant to Executive Order 14059 for materially contributing to the international proliferation of illicit drugs. The company was found to have manufactured and sold synthetic opioids — including nitazenes — and analgesic cutting agents such as xylazine and medetomidine to U.S. buyers. The designation blocks all U.S.-person property and transactions involving the three designated persons and any entity 50%-or-more owned by them; the FBI simultaneously announced a related federal indictment against Guangzhou Tengyue, the two individuals, and roughly 22 other China-based individuals and businesses for conspiracy to commit drug trafficking.

Presidential Decree No. 606 of 29 August 2025 amends the standing list of foreign-owned Russian assets under "temporary management" (established by Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023) to add the shares of Air Liquide's Russian subsidiaries, transferring control to M-Logistika LLC, a Russian company. Reported affected entities include Air Liquide's joint venture with steelmaker Severstal and regional operating units (Alabuga, Balakovo, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Kstovo, Kuzbass, Sever Liquid Gas), covering the bulk of the French industrial-gas group's Russian footprint. 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, Russia's reciprocal-response mechanism for placing "unfriendly state" companies' Russian assets under state administration.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior executive committee (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 779, de 28 de agosto de 2025, amending Annex V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The resolution opens a new one-year, 25,000-tonne tariff-rate quota at a reduced 3.6% duty for chromium sulfate powder (NCM 2833.29.60), adds two natural-rubber lines (TSNR and granulated/pressed rubber, NCM 4001.22.00 / 4001.29.20) to the reduced-tariff annex at 10.8% with no volume cap, and simultaneously removes three antibiotic active-ingredient import lines — piperacillin/ tazobactam, ceftazidime, and meropenem (NCM 3004.10.19, 3004.20.59, 3004.20.99) — from the same reduced-tariff annex, reverting them to the standard (higher) MFN duty.

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.

On 4 August 2025, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed a USD 1.35 billion financing facility in favour of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), acting as Mandated Lead Arranger within a larger approximately USD 4 billion syndicated facility. The financing refinances capital expended on constructing the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex — the world's largest single-train refinery at 650,000 barrels per day — alleviating initial operating expenditure and strengthening DIL's balance sheet. Global Trade Alert logs the transaction as a state-linked loan intervention given Afreximbank's supranational, treaty-based public-development-finance mandate.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ (No: 2025/3) in Resmî Gazete (Issue 32972) on 31 July 2025, adding sodium gluconate (GTİP 2918.16.00.00.13) to the country's import surveillance mechanism. Imports whose unit customs (CIF) value is at or below USD 1.5 per kilogram gross weight require a six-month "gözetim belgesi" (supervision certificate) from the Imports General Directorate before customs clearance; the measure entered into force on 30 August 2025, thirty days after publication. Global Trade Alert logs the intervention as "certainly harmful" and names China as the principal exporter affected. The mechanism does not block imports outright but adds a licensing/documentation step that functions as a de facto minimum-price floor on cheap sodium gluconate imports. It runs in parallel with a separate Turkish anti-dumping investigation into sodium gluconate from China opened under the Prevention of Unfair Competition in Imports framework (Tebliğ No: 2025/9) around the same period, protecting the domestic producer (Sunar Mısır Entegre Tesisleri) that petitioned for both measures.

On 27 July 2025, President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached political agreement at Turnberry, Scotland, on a Framework Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade. The framework was formalised in a Joint Statement published on 21 August 2025 by the White House and DG TRADE. The deal establishes a 15% all-inclusive (MFN + Section 232) US tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU originating goods — including autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber, and chemicals — replacing the threatened 20-30% reciprocal tariff trajectory under EO 14257 (April 2025). Steel and aluminium are excluded from the 15% ceiling and remain at the 50% Section 232 rate pending negotiation of a quota solution. In return, the EU commits to: (i) eliminate tariffs on all US industrial goods, (ii) preferential market access for a wide range of US agricultural and seafood products, (iii) suspension of its rebalancing countermeasures under Reg 2025/778 (suspension effective 7 August 2025), (iv) expected energy offtake of $750bn (LNG, oil, nuclear) through 2028, (v) at least $40bn in US AI chip purchases, and (vi) facilitation of $600bn in additional EU corporate investment into the US through 2028. Effective from 1 September 2025, the US applies MFN-only treatment (no 15% top-up) to: aircraft and parts, generic pharmaceuticals and ingredients, chemical precursors, cork, and certain unavailable natural resources. The framework is not legally binding but anchors the bilateral architecture; it is the largest-economy ART-programme deal alongside US-UK, US-Japan, US-Korea, US-Taiwan, and US-Indonesia.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior executive committee (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 770, de 25 de julho de 2025, amending Annexes II and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The resolution raises the import tariff on raw kraft paper/cardboard (NCM 4707.10.00) and other recovered/waste paper or cardboard (NCM 4707.90.00) to 18%, valid 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026, and sets a 3.8% duty on glyphosate and its monoisopropylammonium salt (NCM 2931.49.14) valid 15 August 2025 to 14 August 2027. It also removes carbon steel with carbon content of 0.6% or more by weight (NCM 7213.91.10) from the reduced-tariff annex.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior executive committee (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 772, de 25 de julho de 2025, amending Annex IX of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The resolution extends a temporary import-duty increase on 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (NCM 2916.12.40), raising the rate from 0% to 10.8% ad valorem, valid 29 July 2025 through 28 July 2026. Belgium, China and Germany are GTA-flagged as the top historical suppliers of this product line to Brazil.

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.

Iberdrola Clientes' GRHENA project — a green industrial-heat generation hub at the Chemical Industrial Park of Tarragona, Spain, designed to produce up to 648 GWh/year of steam via electric boilers powered by renewable electricity — was awarded a EUR 53,938,146 (~USD 63.5 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund. The Grant Agreement was signed on 22 July 2025 as part of a batch of six Innovation Fund 2023 general-call projects (worth EUR 319 million combined) that collectively target 24.1 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided over their first ten years of operation. GRHENA is described as the first large-scale demonstrator of direct industrial electrification of heat generation, replacing natural gas at the Tarragona chemical complex.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-07-11 for approximately USD 46 million with MGC Pure Chemicals America, Inc. (MPCA), the US subsidiary of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company. Co-financed alongside Bank of Yokohama, Hachijuni Bank, and Joyo Bank, the total co-financing package reaches USD 77 million. Proceeds fund expansion of MPCA's Arizona production capacity for ultra-pure hydrogen peroxide and ultra-pure ammonium hydroxide — semiconductor-grade chemicals used for silicon-wafer cleaning and etching — as JBIC states, to strengthen Japanese supply-chain resilience and support US semiconductor manufacturing demand. This is MPCA's second JBIC-backed expansion loan, following a USD 36 million (JBIC portion) facility signed in April 2024 for the same production line.

The Polish Sejm passed the Act of 9 July 2025 amending the Act of 24 July 2015 on the Control of Certain Investments, signed by the President on 21 July 2025 and effective 24 July 2025. The amendment removes the time-limited "Specialised Rules" tier (introduced in 2020 under the Anti-COVID Shield) and makes Poland's FDI screening regime permanent. Review competence is transferred from the President of UOKiK (the competition authority) to the minister responsible for economic affairs (currently the Minister of Finance and Economy), and a new trigger covering "an international situation distorting the market or competition" is added alongside the existing public-order, security and health grounds.

On 8 July 2025 the European Commission adopted Communication COM(2025) 530 final, the "European Chemicals Industry Action Plan", together with companion staff-working document SWD(2025) 191. The Plan launches a Critical Chemicals Alliance (CCA) of Member States and industry stakeholders to safeguard EU production of strategic base chemicals (ammonia, urea, ethylene, propylene, methanol, chlorine, silicon and other high-volume building blocks) against capacity closures driven by structurally high energy/feedstock costs and third-country oversupply. The package combines (i) accelerated trade-defence on imports of PVC, melamine, glyoxylic acid, ethanolamines and polyols plus extension of the Combined Safeguard Mechanism into chemicals; (ii) energy-cost relief through swift implementation of the Affordable Energy Action Plan and an indirect-CBAM offset for chemicals exposed to high-energy input costs; (iii) a 6th Omnibus simplification package overhauling REACH, CLP labelling, cosmetics and fertilising-product rules with claimed industry savings of at least €363m/year; (iv) a framework for a follow-on Critical Chemicals Act and PFAS restrictions preserving critical applications. The chemicals sector covers ~29,000 EU companies, 1.2m direct jobs, and ~19m dependent supply-chain jobs.

Vietnam's government issued Decree 199/2025/NĐ-CP on 8 July 2025, amending Decree 26/2023/NĐ-CP's Export Tariff and Preferential Import Tariff Schedules. The headline change is a staged export-tax increase on yellow phosphorus, from 5% currently to 10% effective 1 January 2026 and 15% effective 1 January 2027 — a resource-nationalism measure to discourage raw export of an input used in electronics, agrochemical, and specialty- chemical production. The decree also narrows the 0% preferential import tariff window for tin-mill blackplate (TMBP) steel to end-August 2025 and adjusts minimum-production-volume conditions for the auto-parts tariff incentive programme covering electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicle manufacturing/assembly.

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.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-30 for up to approximately USD 626 million (JBIC portion) with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the total co-financing package reaches approximately USD 1,044 million. Proceeds fund Mitsui's investment in Blue Point Number One, LLC, a low-carbon ammonia production facility under construction in Louisiana using CCS technology to cut over 95% of process CO2 emissions. JBIC frames the loan against Japan's Basic Hydrogen Strategy, Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, and GX2040 Vision, which treat hydrogen and its derivatives as key decarbonization energy sources requiring policy-bank-mobilized capital.

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1303 of 23 June 2025, published in the Official Journal on 30 June 2025 and applying from 1 July 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2278 and replaces the EU's autonomous Common Customs Tariff (CCT) duty-suspension list for agricultural and industrial inputs "not produced in the Union in sufficient quantity." The revision extends or newly grants reduced/zero duty treatment to 79 industrial products across 48 six-digit CN tariff subheadings, while also raising import duties on four specific products: rubber thread and cord (CN 4007.00.00), certain flexible plastic sheets/plates/film (CN 3920.10.89), and fixed vegetable/microbial fats and oils (CN 1515.60.99). The measure is erga omnes (applies to all trading partners, not a bilateral concession).

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.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-26 for up to USD 240 million with UBE C1 Chemicals America, Inc. (UCCA), a US subsidiary of UBE Corporation. Co-financed alongside MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, and The Norinchukin Bank, the total co-financing package reaches USD 400 million. Proceeds fund a new UCCA manufacturing facility for dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC) — organic solvents used in automotive lithium-ion batteries — which JBIC and Louisiana economic-development officials describe as the first domestic US production source for these chemicals, which are currently entirely imported.

The European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1206 on 19 June 2025, suspending GSP+ tariff preferences on non-fuel ethanol (CN codes 2207 10 and 2207 20, excluding TARIC-coded fuel-use ethanol) imported from Pakistan, effective 21 June 2025 for two years. The measure invokes the safeguard clause (Article 30 of Regulation (EU) No 978/2012) after finding that a surge in duty-free Pakistani ethanol — 27% of all EU non-fuel ethanol imports in 2024 (roughly 215,929 tonnes), priced around 25% below EU producer prices — caused serious injury to the EU bioethanol industry. Reinstated Common Customs Tariff duties are approximately EUR 243/tonne (CN 2207 10) and EUR 129/tonne (CN 2207 20).

DGFT Notification No. 19/2025-26, issued 17 June 2025 under sections 3 and 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, reclassifies all of Customs Tariff Heading (CTH) 2843 — colloidal precious metals, inorganic or organic compounds of precious metals, and amalgams of precious metals, covering gold, silver, platinum, rhodium and palladium forms (ITC-HS codes including 28431010 colloidal gold, 28431020 colloidal silver, 28432100 silver nitrate, 28433000 gold compounds, 28439011 sodium aurous thiosulphate, 28439012 noble-metal solutions, and 28439020 amalgams) — from "Free" to "Restricted" import status. Importers now require DGFT prior authorisation per consignment; the stated purpose is to close a route for importing gold disguised as chemical compounds. Genuine industrial and manufacturing users (electronics, electrical, and specialised chemical industries) remain able to import against an authorisation, so the measure targets bullion arbitrage rather than input-supply continuity. It was issued the same day as, and as a companion measure to, DGFT Notification No. 18/2025-26 (gold-bearing PGM alloys, CTH 7110), filed separately as 2025-06-17-india-dgft-pgm-alloys-import-licensing.

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 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.

As part of the FY2025-2026 national budget, Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue implemented a package of customs duty amendments under the Finance Act 2025, effective 1 July 2025. The changes are mixed-direction: duties were reduced on some product lines and increased on others, spanning forage/fibre products, chemicals and fertilisers, and basic organic chemicals among other categories. This is a routine annual fiscal-cycle tariff schedule revision rather than a targeted trade-restrictive measure against any single trading partner.

Pakistan's Federal Cabinet approved the National Tariff Policy 2025-30 (NTP 2025-30) in June 2025, with operative tariff reforms incorporated into the Finance Act 2025 effective 1 July 2025. The NTP restructures Pakistan's customs duty (CD) slab architecture from five slabs (0/3/11/16/20%) to four flatter slabs (0/5/10/15%) by FY2029-30, while phasing out Regulatory Duties (RDs) and Additional Customs Duties (ACDs) on 7,000+ tariff lines over four to five years. The policy targets cutting the trade-weighted average tariff from ~10.6% to below 6% and the simple-average tariff from 19% to 9.5% by 2030, underpinned by GTAP projections of 10–14% export growth and 5–6% import growth. Prepared in coordination with IMF technical assistance under the USD 7 billion EFF, the NTP is the statutory anchor for the sequence of Finance-Act SRO-based sectoral tariff revisions covering textiles/MMF, iron-and-steel, and chemicals/intermediates through FY2029-30.

Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue gazetted SRO 225-Ain/2025/48/Customs and SRO 226-Ain/2025/48/Customs on 29 May 2025, revising the minimum customs valuation (tariff-value) floors used to assess duty on a range of imported consumer and industrial goods, effective 2 June 2025. The amendment raised minimum import values for chocolate and cocoa-containing food preparations, removed the minimum-value floor for base oil used by petroleum processing/blending industries, and adjusted floors — mostly downward — for soap and other cleaning preparations and a handful of additional product lines. Minimum-value schemes set a customs-assessable price floor per unit regardless of the invoiced transaction value, so a higher floor functions as a de facto increase in the duty base (and hence landed cost) for under-invoicing-prone product categories, while a removed or lowered floor eases the duty base for the affected goods.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of silicon metal from Laos, Australia, Norway, and Thailand, publishing four parallel preliminary affirmative CVD determinations on 2025-09-26 following an initiation on 2025-05-21 (petition by Ferroglobe USA, Inc. and Mississippi Silicon LLC). For Laos, Commerce set a preliminary countervailable-subsidy cash-deposit rate of 240.00% ad valorem for both the sole mandatory respondent, Lao Silicon Co., Ltd., and the all-others rate, based entirely on adverse facts available after finding the respondent did not cooperate. Companion CVD investigations against Australia, Norway, and Thailand were found affirmative the same day, each with its own preliminary subsidy-rate cash-deposit schedule. Commerce ordered CBP to suspend liquidation and require cash deposits at the indicated rates on covered entries from the Laos determination onward. Final CVD determinations are aligned with companion antidumping investigations on the same product.

The US Department of Commerce, following affirmative final less-than-fair-value determinations and an affirmative material-injury finding by the US International Trade Commission, issued antidumping duty orders on silicon metal from Angola and Laos, effective 2026-04-16. Commerce set a 68.45% ad valorem weighted-average dumping margin for Angola (both named respondents and the all-others rate) and a 94.44% margin for Laos, both based entirely on adverse facts available after the respondents did not cooperate with the investigation. The orders stem from an April 2025 petition by Ferroglobe USA, Inc. and companion less-than-fair-value investigations initiated 2025-05-21 that also covered Australia and Norway, where preliminary and final LTFV determinations followed on a later schedule.

The European Commission on 20 May 2025 published the results of the second EU Hydrogen Bank auction (IF24), selecting 15 renewable hydrogen production projects across five European Economic Area countries to share approximately €992 million in Innovation Fund grants. Winning projects span transport, chemicals, methanol, and ammonia end-uses; three projects were selected under a dedicated maritime-fuels lot. Spain, Lithuania, and Austria committed over €700 million in additional national co-funding via the Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism, bringing total public support above €1.69 billion and marking the first large-scale EEA co-funded hydrogen auction.

MOFCOM Announcement No. 25 of 2025 (18 May 2025) issued the final ruling in the anti-dumping investigation into copolyacetal (共聚聚甲醛, polyoxymethylene copolymer/POM copolymer, an engineering plastic used in automotive parts, electronics and precision components) imported from the United States, the EU, Taiwan and Japan, initiated 19 May 2024 (MOFCOM Announcement No. 18 of 2024). MOFCOM found dumping, material injury to the domestic industry and a causal link, and imposed anti-dumping duties effective 19 May 2025 for a five-year term under Article 38 of China's Anti-Dumping Regulations. Rates: 74.9% for US companies; 42.0% for EU companies; 3.8%-32.6% for Taiwan-region companies (named companies at the low end, "other Taiwan companies" at 32.6%); 33.9%-43.7% for Japanese companies (named companies at the low end, "other Japanese companies" at 35.5% per the 2026 succession notice). On 20 August 2026, MOFCOM Announcement No. 36 of 2026 ruled that Daicel Corporation succeeds to Polyplastics Co., Ltd.'s 35.5% rate and Daicel HPP Taiwan Co., Ltd. succeeds to Polyplastics Taiwan Co.'s 3.8% rate, both following corporate reorganizations, effective 21 August 2026 (filed below as an amendment).

Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines published Decreto Supremo N° 009-2025-EM in El Peruano on 18 May 2025, approving the implementing regulation for Law 32213 (Dec 2024). The decree operationalises the extension of the REINFO mining-formalisation registry deadline through 30 June 2025 (extendable +6 months), reaffirms MINEM as the rector authority over the small-scale and artisanal mining (MAPE) formalisation process, and creates SIPMMA — the Sistema Interoperable de Pequeña Minería y Minería Artesanal — as a state interoperable system for operational traceability of minerals, explosives, chemical inputs and controlled products. A controversial Article 10 had also opened a "REINFO hereditario" path allowing succession transfer of registry inscriptions; that provision was derogated two weeks later by DS 010-2025-EM (1 Jun 2025) under domestic and international anti-illegal-mining pressure.

Indonesia's Ministry of Finance extended for a second three-year term the import safeguard duty (Bea Masuk Tindakan Pengamanan / BMTP) on expansible polystyrene (EPS) resin (HS 3903.11.10), via Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 29 of 2025, effective 23 May 2025 to 22 May 2028. The extension follows a KPPI investigation opened 22 July 2024 that found the domestic industry still needed time to complete structural adjustment despite a fall in import volumes. The duty is a specific (per-kilogram) levy declining annually and applies to all source countries, principally Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

On 30 April 2025 the US Department of State designated seven entities and identified two vessels as blocked property for facilitating trade in Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, under Executive Order 13846 and in furtherance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2, "Restoring Maximum Pressure on the Government of Iran"). The action named four UAE-based sellers and one purchaser of Iranian petrochemicals — including Solvent Organics (over $300 million in exports of Iranian-origin petrochemicals to third countries) and Alseerah Trading (over $150 million) — plus a Turkiye-based petrochemical trader, an Iran-based cargo inspection company, and a marine management company involved in transporting millions of barrels of Iranian crude. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the goal was to drive Iran's illicit oil and petrochemical exports, including to China, to zero.

On April 29, 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated twelve Iran- and PRC-based entities and individuals under Executive Order 13382 for a network procuring ballistic-missile propellant ingredients for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Treasury names sodium perchlorate, dioctyl sebacate and sodium chlorate as the procured chemicals; sodium perchlorate is a precursor of ammonium perchlorate, which is MTCR-controlled. No shipment quantities or trade values were disclosed.

On 26 February 2025 the European Commission adopted the "Clean Industrial Deal" (CID), Communication COM(2025) 85 final, framed as a joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation. The CID bundles state-aid simplification, energy-cost relief, lead-market creation, capital mobilisation and circular-economy mandates into a single industrial strategy targeting both energy-intensive industries (steel, metals, chemicals, cement) and clean-tech manufacturing (batteries, solar, wind, heat pumps, electrolyzers). The Commission claims the package will mobilise more than €100 billion of public-and-private financing for EU-made clean manufacturing through a strengthened Innovation Fund, amendments to the InvestEU Regulation (up to €50bn additional guarantee capacity) and a proposed Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. CID directly precedes the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF, adopted 25 June 2025) and seeds legislative work on an Industrial Accelerator Act, a Circular Economy Act, and a strengthened CBAM. Severity 4 on mixed basis: explicit €100bn+ quant headline plus qualitative breadth across the EU industrial perimeter, formally re-anchoring the von der Leyen II mandate around competitiveness rather than pure decarbonisation.

The European Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/261 in the Official Journal on 10 February 2025, imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of biodiesel (fatty-acid mono-alkyl esters / FAME and paraffinic gasoils from synthesis or hydro-treatment of non-fossil origin / HVO) originating in China. Duties range from 10.0% (EcoCeres, an individually-examined producer) to 21.7%–35.6% for other exporters, applied on top of the MFN import duty, covering an estimated €1.4 billion of annual EU-bound Chinese biodiesel flows. The regulation supersedes provisional duties imposed under CR (EU) 2024/2163 and explicitly excludes Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from the AD scope while introducing mandatory SAF import-registration tracking.

Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs published the final "Polska w grze o przyszłość — polityka dla sektora półprzewodników 2025+" (Poland in the Game for the Future — Semiconductor Sector Policy 2025+) in mid-June 2025 following public consultations (6 February – 4 March 2025, 38 entities, 356 proposals reviewed). The seven-pillar national strategic framework targets 2–3 large industrial semiconductor investments by 2030 with added value €300–600 M each, focused on back-end production (assembly, test, packaging) and materials. Three specialised semiconductor parks are proposed: Mazovia (chip design), Lower Silesia (materials manufacturing), and Pomerania (sensor technologies). The policy operationalises Poland's positioning as a back-end semiconductor destination and materials-supply hub within the EU Chips Act ecosystem, sitting inside the broader "National Framework for Supporting Strategic Semiconductor Investments" programme (>PLN 7 bn through 2026, adopted December 2023).

On 9 January 2025, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani unveiled the Qatar National Manufacturing Strategy 2024–2030 alongside the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) sectoral strategy at the Qatar National Convention Centre. The manufacturing strategy targets raising sectoral value-add to QAR 70.5bn (~USD 19.4bn), lifting non-hydrocarbon industrial exports above QAR 49bn (~USD 13.5bn), attracting annual industrial investment of QAR 2.75bn (~USD 755m), and placing Qatar among the world's top 40 economies in the UNIDO Competitiveness Industrial Performance index by 2030. It is built on four transformative pillars: shift to smart and green manufacturing, R&D-led productivity uplift, alignment of education and training with industrial demand, and expansion of Qatari workforce participation (Qatarisation), delivered through 15 strategic initiatives and 60 projects.

On 23 December 2024 the US Bureau of Industry and Security published a final rule (89 FR 104408; FR Doc 2024-30425; RIN 0694-AJ83) amending the Export Administration Regulations to implement decisions adopted at the Australia Group's 2023 and 2024 plenary meetings. The rule adds new ECCN 2B352.k controlling instruments for the automated chemical synthesis of peptides that are partly or entirely automated and capable of generating peptides at a system-synthesis scale of 1 mmol or greater, finalising the April 2023 BIS proposed rule. It also adds dipropylamine to ECCN 1C350.d.11, neosaxitoxin to ECCN 1C351.d.12, revises the 1C351.d.3 entry from "botulinum toxins" to "botulinum neurotoxins" to capture all serotypes, adds a "minimum detection limit" definition for toxic-gas monitors in 2B351.a, and explicitly captures single-use centrifugal separators in 2B352.c. License requirements (CB, AT, CW where applicable) apply for export to non-Australia-Group destinations; the rule is effective on publication.

Regulation (EU) 2025/40, published in the Official Journal on 22 January 2025 and entering into force on 11 February 2025, replaces the 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC with a directly-applicable Regulation. It mandates binding recycled-content targets for plastic packaging (by polymer and format, reaching 30–65% by 2030 with higher targets by 2040), minimum reusable-packaging shares for beverages and transport, recyclability standards for all packaging placed on the EU market from 2030, deposit-return-scheme obligations for beverage containers from 2029, and bans on specified single-use plastic packaging formats. General application begins 12 August 2026, with staggered compliance windows extending to 2030 and beyond, affecting all non-EU exporters shipping consumer goods, beverages, or e-commerce fulfilment into the EU single market.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/4 on 17 December 2024, imposing definitive five-year anti-dumping duties on imports of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) originating in China, published in the OJ on 9 January 2025. Duty rates are differentiated by Chinese exporter: €0.25/kg for Anhui Jinhe Star (Gold Star), €0.74/kg for Lomon Billions Group and all non-cooperating exporters, and €0.64/kg for other cooperating producers — converting the provisional ad-valorem duties (14.4%–39.7%) imposed by CR 2024/1923 in July 2024 into specific definitive measures covering CN codes 3206 11 00 and 3206 19 00. China filed WTO dispute DS636 in April 2025 challenging the measure.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT), under Chairman Dr. Majed Alkassabi, issued a final affirmative determination imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on Sulphonated Naphthalene Formaldehyde (SNF) — a concrete superplasticiser/water- reducing admixture — originating in or exported from China and Russia. The decision was published in the official gazette on 2 December 2024 and took effect 3 December 2024, directing the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority to collect duties in the range of 18.12%-34% for five years (to 2 December 2029). The investigation was initiated 20 November 2023 following a complaint from the Saudi domestic industry.

Final rule (RIN 0694-AJ93, FR Doc 2024-25445, 89 FR 87279) under which BIS expands the Russian and Belarusian Industry Sector Sanctions of the Export Administration Regulations to cover an enumerated list of chemical precursors used in the synthesis of chloropicrin and riot-control agents (CS, CN, CR), and adds associated technical clarifications. The action is the export- control complement to the US Department of State's annual report to Congress on Compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which determined that Russia had used riot-control agents as a method of warfare against Ukrainian forces in violation of the CWC. Effective on publication, 1 November 2024.

On 31 October 2024, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced strengthened export controls in response to North Korea's long-range ballistic missile launch earlier that day. The measure designates 15 "North Korea-customized" watch-list items across the solid-fuel missile production chain — including ammonium perchlorate, sodium chloride, liquid thiokol, carbon fiber, glass fiber fabric, thermal batteries and inertial-guidance components — that North Korea finds difficult to produce domestically. It operates under Korea's existing Special Notice on Trade for Fulfilling International Peace and Security Obligations, building on the June 2016 Nuclear and Missile Surveillance Items framework and Korea's NSG/MTCR commitments.

Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1400 of 23 October 2024, signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, sets temporary export quotas on mineral fertilisers from Russia for the six-month period 1 December 2024 – 31 May 2025. The aggregate cap is approximately 19.2 million tonnes, comprising about 11.2 Mt for nitrogen fertilisers and roughly 8 Mt for compound (NPK / NP / NPS) fertilisers. As with prior cycles, the quota is allocated across exporters by historical share and motivated by domestic-market supply stabilisation rather than revenue capture. Russia is the world's largest mineral-fertiliser exporter (~15-20% of global trade depending on segment), so the semi-annual quota is one of the principal global ag-input policy instruments.