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

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/3 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 days later on 30 January 2026. It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on vacuum storage bags: imports priced below a reference unit customs value require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert logs the measure as a "certainly harmful" intervention but does not publicly disclose the exact GTİP line or USD/unit threshold; no single exporting country is named in the primary text.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/4 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on marble, travertine, alabaster and other worked building/monumental stone (GTİP 6802.21 and 6802.91.00.00.19). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 700/tonne require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert lists China, Greece and Iran as the principally affected exporting countries.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/5 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on woven wire cloth and netting of iron or steel welded at the intersections (GTİP 7314.31.00.00.00 and 7314.39.00.00.00). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 3.5/kg require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert lists China as the affected jurisdiction.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/6 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on vehicle suspension leaf springs (HS 7320 — springs and leaves for springs, of iron or steel; specifically heading 7320.10). Whenever the declared unit customs value falls below a Ministry-set reference price floor, import is only permitted with a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General, referenced at customs declaration. Global Trade Alert lists Belgium, China and Germany as the principally affected exporting countries.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/7 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on razors with non-replaceable blades (GTİP 8212.10.10.00.00), razor blades (8212.20.00.10.00) and razor blade blanks (8212.20.00.20.00). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 20/kg gross weight require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert lists Belgium, China and Czechia as affected jurisdictions, in alphabetical rather than ranked order.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/8 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on staples of iron or steel (GTİP 8305.20.00.21.00 — strip staples of the type used in office, upholstery and packaging staplers). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 1.70/kg gross weight require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert lists China as the principally affected exporting country.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/9 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on piston-type air compressors incorporating an air tank (GTİP 8414.80.22.90.11). Imports declared at or below a unit customs value of USD 90/unit require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert logs the measure as a discrete "certainly harmful" import-licensing intervention; its public affected-country list (Austria, Belgium, Brazil, …) is alphabetical rather than an exporter ranking, and the underlying Tebliğ is origin-neutral on its face.

The Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) issued Notification No. 02/2025-Customs (SG) dated 30 December 2025, imposing a definitive three-year safeguard duty on imports of "Non-Alloy and Alloy Steel Flat Products" classified under Customs Tariff headings 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225 and 7226 (hot-rolled coils/sheets/plates, hot-rolled plate-mill plates, cold-rolled coils/sheets, metallic coated sheets including galvanneal and aluminium-zinc coated, and colour-coated coils/sheets). Duty rates are graduated: 12% ad valorem for 21 April 2025 – 20 April 2026, 11.5% for 21 April 2026 – 20 April 2027, and 11% for 21 April 2027 – 20 April 2028. The notification implements the final findings of the Director General (Trade Remedies) (DGTR notification 22/01/2024-DGTR dated 16 August 2025) which concluded that imports of subject goods rose from 2.293 mt in FY 2021-22 to 6.612 mt during the period of investigation, causing serious injury and threat of serious injury to the domestic industry. The definitive measure supersedes the provisional 200-day safeguard duty imposed at 12% ad valorem from 21 April 2025 by Notification 01/2025-Customs (SG); no safeguard duty applies for the interim period between expiry of the provisional duty (early November 2025) and the day preceding Gazette publication of the definitive notification. Imports from developing-country WTO members are exempt unless the share of any individual developing country exceeds 3% of total imports of the subject goods, or the collective share of developing countries exceeding 3% individually exceeds 9% — the China and Vietnam carve-outs from this exemption preserve full applicability of the duty to the dominant cheap-import sources.

At its 30 December 2025 regular session, Iraq's Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 40% additional duty on medical and industrial oxygen (gaseous and liquid forms), in effect for four years, and a 30% additional duty on imported yogurt (laban rayeb) and liquid milk. Both measures were framed as protecting domestic pharmaceutical/ industrial-gas production and local dairy manufacturing respectively, and take effect 120 days after issuance (29 April 2026) to give importers an adjustment window. Global Trade Alert logs the dairy duty as principally affecting Germany, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye as leading supplier origins, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

Iraq's Council of Ministers Decision No. 957 of 2025 (approved late 2025) revises the country's full customs tariff schedule — roughly 16,400 tariff lines across 99 HS chapters — into rate brackets from 0.5% to 30%, effective 1 January 2026 at all federal ports. Within that reform, the General Customs Authority singled out hybrid and electric vehicles (model year 2025 and newer) — previously exempt to encourage adoption — for a new 15% import duty, alongside a matching 15% duty on gold and other goods classed as non-essential/luxury. Global Trade Alert logs Austria, Canada and China as the leading supplier-origin countries affected, though the duty applies non-discriminately to all countries of origin.

China's State Council Tariff Commission published its annual "2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan" (税委会公告2025年第11号) on 29 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026. The plan sets provisional import tariff rates below MFN levels on 935 products, while cancelling provisional rates on certain other products (reverting them to standard MFN rates). It adds new national tariff subheadings for intelligent bionic robots, bio-aviation kerosene, forest-grown ginseng, and other items, bringing the total tariff schedule to 8,972 lines. The government frames the provisional-rate cuts — covering key components and advanced materials such as CNC hydraulic air cushions for stamping presses, recycled "black powder" (黑粉) lithium-ion battery feedstock, artificial blood vessels and infectious-disease diagnostic kits — as support for "high-level sci-tech self-reliance" and modernisation of the industrial system. China also continues zero-tariff treatment on 100% of tariff lines for the 43 least-developed countries with diplomatic relations with China, and continues Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement preferential rates for Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Decree reforming various tariff fractions of the General Import and Export Duties Tariff (TIGIE), published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 29 December 2025 and in force 1 January 2026. The reform, approved by Congress as a statutory amendment to the LIGIE (Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Dec 2025) and signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, raises MFN import duties to between 5% and 50% ad valorem on 1,463 tariff lines covering more than 20 chapters of the TIGIE, spanning automotive, auto parts, textiles, apparel, footwear, steel, aluminum, plastics, paper, leather, furniture, glass, toys, appliances and cosmetics. The increases apply only to goods originating in countries without a free trade agreement with Mexico — principally China, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, the UAE, and South Africa. The decree formalises at statutory level the September 2024 Sheinbaum executive order placing a 50% duty on finished passenger vehicles from non-FTA states and is framed by the Secretaría de Economía and SHCP as the operational tariff instrument of Plan México (2025-01-21).

The Türkiye Ministry of Trade's Imports General Directorate published Communiqué No. 2025/44 in Resmî Gazete on 27 December 2025, imposing a definitive flat-rate 3.95% ad valorem anti-dumping duty on imports of cold-rolled stainless flat steel (CRSS) originating in the People's Republic of China, covering 22 customs-tariff positions under HS headings 7219 and 7220. The duty runs for five years from the date of publication (sunset 27 December 2030). The parallel investigation track into Indonesian-origin CRSS was closed without measures — imports from Indonesia were determined to be at a negligible dumping margin and caused no material injury to the domestic industry. The investigation (initiated as Notice 2024/20, June 2024) was petitioned by the Turkish stainless-steel producer consortium (Posco Assan Stainless TST, Sandvik Karbosan, and ÇağdaşÇelik).

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Multi-modal Foundation Model Development Project with a Focus on AI Robots and Physical AI" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. NEDO -- METI's implementing R&D agency -- operationalised this line through a commissioned-project (100%-funded) solicitation opened 24 March 2026 and closed 22 April 2026, capping funding at up to JPY 383.4 billion (~USD 2.5bn) per adopted proposal for FY2026, with the programme running FY2026 through FY2030 (initial contract period FY2026-FY2027, annual stage-gate reviews thereafter). The goal is a domestically developed multimodal ("VLM/VLA") foundation model that keeps Japanese factory-floor and robotics data onshore while underpinning "physical AI" -- AI systems embedded in robots and industrial equipment -- to address labour shortages and lift manufacturing productivity. NEDO's call for proposals subsequently selected Noetra Inc. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST/産総研) as awardees.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved a FY2025 (Reiwa 7) supplementary budget line -- the "Renewable Energy Expansion: Grid- Connected Storage Battery and Other Power Storage System Introduction Support Project" -- budgeted at JPY 8.0 billion (rising to JPY 61.6 billion including multi-year budgetary commitment authority, kokko-saimu futan koi). Global Trade Alert logs this as one of 23 METI programmes under the FY2026 budget cycle supporting Japan's "green transformation" of the industrial sector, effective with the start of fiscal year 2026 on 1 April 2026. The programme subsidises private- sector installation of grid-connected batteries, batteries co-located with renewable generation, demand-side batteries, and long-duration energy storage (LDES) systems, aiming to secure decarbonised balancing capacity as renewable penetration rises and to build resilience against energy-price volatility. METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy opened the call for the executing body (shikko dantai) that will run the subsidy's application, screening and disbursement process on 24 December 2025, with submissions due 22 January 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Leading Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Promotion" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. NEDO -- METI's implementing R&D agency -- operationalises this budget line through competitive solicitations for hydrogen-supply-chain technology development and demonstration; the FY2026 tranche includes the "Advanced Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Model Construction" (水素社会モデル構築高度化技術開発・ 実証事業, project code P26004), soliciting proposals from 19 March to 22 April 2026 for regional hydrogen-supply-chain business models (survey phase up to 2 years; technology development/demonstration phase up to 5 years). The predecessor NEDO hydrogen-technology- development project line (FY2014-2025) was budgeted at roughly JPY 8.1 billion in its final year (FY2025); the FY2026-specific grant total was not disclosed in the sources reviewed.

Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget on 26 December 2025, funding METI/ANRE's "Hydropower Energy Introduction Promotion Project" (水力発電導入促進支援事業費補助金) -- one of the programmes Global Trade Alert logs under the FY2026 METI budget cycle, which it puts at a JPY 2.8 billion allocation. ANRE opened a public offer on 26 January 2026 (closed 16 February 2026) for the executing body that would administer indirect subsidies to private-sector and municipal operators for FY2026-27; the New Energy Foundation (一般財団 法人新エネルギー財団) was selected on 20 February 2026. The programme supports two tracks: subsidised replacement/upgrade of ageing existing hydropower facilities to raise output and efficiency, and feasibility studies to expand new entrants into small and mid-scale hydropower.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which Global Trade Alert logs as including a "Next-Generation Aircraft Development Support" financial-grant programme administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026 and running through 31 March 2027. The line item corresponds to METI's "Next-Generation Aircraft Development Support Project" (jiki kokuki kaihatsu-to shien jigyo), funded through the Decarbonisation Growth-type Economic Structure Transition Promotion Subsidy (GX Transition Bond proceeds) and disbursed via a designated implementing body to aerospace-supply-chain firms. The FY2026 allocation is JPY 150 billion, up from JPY 81 billion in FY2025 -- an 85% increase -- aimed at strengthening Japan's aircraft-parts and materials supply chain (composites, advanced materials, engine and airframe components) and its international-competitiveness and economic-security positioning in next-generation aircraft programmes.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Capital Investment in Oil and Natural Gas Field Exploration and Asset Acquisition Projects" financial-grant/equity line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. This continues the government's long-standing equity-investment scheme -- run through JOGMEC (the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security) -- that co-funds Japanese companies' upstream oil and gas exploration, development, and M&A/asset-acquisition activity abroad. The FY2026 initial-budget allocation for this specific line is JPY 42.7 billion, down from JPY 56.3 billion in FY2025, though a JPY 19.7 billion supplementary appropriation lifts total FY2026 availability to roughly JPY 62.4 billion -- a modest net increase over FY2025 once the supplementary tranche is included.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Project to Promote the Strengthening of Autonomous Resource Circulation Systems" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. The line is the continuation of METI's "Decarbonisation Growth-Type Economic Structure Transition Promotion Subsidy (Autonomous Resource Circulation System Strengthening Promotion Project)" (脱炭素成長型経済 構造移行推進対策費補助金（自律型資源循環システム強靱化促進事業）), which funds private-sector investment in recycled-material manufacturing and recovery equipment for rare metals/rare earths, automotive and small-electronics lithium-ion batteries, plastics, and textiles. Japanese budget-press reporting puts the FY2026 allocation at JPY 7.3 billion (73億円), up from JPY 3.0 billion (30億円) in FY2025 -- roughly a 2.4x year-on-year increase. METI opened the call for the executing body (執行団体) on 18 February 2026, with the General Incorporated Association for Low-Carbon Investment Promotion (GIO) again acting as the designated administrator, as it did for the FY2025 round.

Shandong Province's provincial government General Office issued Notice 鲁政办字〔2025〕183号 on 26 December 2025 ("Notice on Several Measures for Fiscal Support of the Integrated Development of Education, Science and Technology, and Talent"), a package of 30 fiscal-support measures running through end-2028. The measures fund R&D grants (up to RMB 30 million for major academician-led projects), talent awards (up to RMB 5 million per person), university-enterprise collaboration funding (up to RMB 15 million/project), an R&D-spend rebate (up to RMB 5 million/year per firm), and a 40%-of-interest subsidy (capped at RMB 500,000 per loan) for bank loans financing technology-achievement commercialization, plus co-financed non-performing-loan risk compensation of up to 90% on those loans. Global Trade Alert logged the interest-payment-subsidy component as a separate intervention tagged with generic extractive-sector codes (coal, crude petroleum, uranium) that do not correspond to any sector language in the underlying notice — the actual measures are horizontal, applying across education, R&D and technology-commercialization activity rather than to any named industry.

On 25 December 2025 Shanghai's Huangpu District Science and Technology Commission and Investment Promotion Office jointly issued Huangkeweigui [2025] No. 2, "Several Measures on Focusing on Translational Medicine to Accelerate Industry-Medicine Integration Innovation and Development," effective 30 days after promulgation (4 February 2026 per Global Trade Alert tracking) and valid through 31 December 2027. The measures subsidize cell-and-gene therapy, mRNA, synthetic biology, regenerative medicine and digital-medicine R&D (up to CNY 2m/year per entity), platform/lab construction (up to 30% of investment, capped at CNY 2m), use of the district's translational-medicine national science facility (up to 50% of annual usage fee, capped at CNY 1m), and domestic Class 1 new-drug clinical trials (Phase I up to CNY 2m, Phase II up to CNY 5m, capped at CNY 50m/year per entity), plus annual support for biopharma industrial- park operators (up to CNY 2m/year).

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 843, de 23 de dezembro de 2025, adding six glass and compressor products (across five NCM tariff lines) to Annex IX of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) — the standing list of temporary import-tariff increases Brazil applies to individual NCM lines to counter import surges linked to trade imbalances from the international economic conjuncture. Annex IX additions carry the measure's tariff to Brazil's WTO-bound ceiling rate (35% for most non-capital-goods lines) for a fixed term; Global Trade Alert records this listing's validity as 26 December 2025 to 25 December 2026 (a 12-month term consistent with the mechanism's standard cycle). Global Trade Alert names Algeria, China and Czechia as the principal supplying countries affected.

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

The European Investment Bank signed the first EUR 231 million tranche (EUR 16m + EUR 50m + EUR 165m) of a EUR 271 million green loan to Italy's Sunprime Holdings Srl on 22 December 2025, under the EIB-approved "Project Sophocles" solar-and-battery programme (project reference 20250247, approved 27 August 2025). The financing backs a EUR 487 million multi-year investment programme deploying roughly 280 MWp of small-scale solar PV across multiple Italian sites plus 80 MW and 270 MW of four-hour battery energy storage. A further EUR 40 million tranche signed in February 2026, and the programme was subsequently expanded to a EUR 507 million EIB/Natixis CIB co-financing package announced in March 2026. Global Trade Alert logs the December tranche as a "red" state-loan intervention on grounds that below-market EIB financing is a trade- and competition-distorting subsidy to a domestic renewable-energy developer.

The European Investment Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo announced on 22 December 2025 two finalised agreements totalling EUR 700 million to support access to finance and investment for Italian SMEs and mid-caps: a EUR 500 million EIB covered-bond purchase and a EUR 200 million EIB risk-sharing guarantee to Intesa Sanpaolo backing new mid-cap lending. Twenty-five percent of the combined resources (about EUR 175 million) is earmarked for climate action, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable-mobility investment. The EIB estimates the package will mobilise more than EUR 1.9 billion in real-economy investment and reach roughly 1,000 Italian businesses. Global Trade Alert separately logs the EUR 200 million guarantee leg as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

On 20 December 2025, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed a USD 750 million dual-tranche senior secured reserve-based lending facility for Heirs Energies Limited, a Nigerian upstream oil and gas producer chaired by Tony O. Elumelu, at a ceremony in Abuja. Afreximbank acted as Mandated Lead Arranger, Facility Agent and Security Agent; the facility is intended to optimise Heirs Energies' capital structure and fund working capital as the company pursues its field development programme on OML 17, where it produces roughly 50,000 barrels per day plus associated and non-associated gas supplying three power plants that account for about 15% of Nigeria's installed electricity-generation capacity. Global Trade Alert logs the transaction as a state-linked loan intervention given Afreximbank's supranational, treaty-based public-development-finance mandate.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 146 million (USD 171 million) loan with Kronospan, a leading European producer of wood-based panels, on 19 December 2025. The financing backs deployment of rooftop and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic installations, battery energy storage, and electric-vehicle infrastructure across Kronospan's manufacturing sites in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, aimed at cutting emissions and boosting energy independence. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a "red" state-loan intervention on grounds that below-market EIB financing to a named commercial manufacturer is a trade- and competition-distorting subsidy.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 250 million unfunded partial-delegation risk-sharing operation with Natixis on 19 December 2025 (EIB project ref. 20240252, "Natixis Pan-EU Wind Power Package"), under the EIB's broader Pan-EU Wind Power Package Risk Sharing envelope (ref. 20230650, approved 13 December 2023, EUR 6.5 billion EIB exposure against a total programme size of roughly EUR 104 billion). Natixis will issue advance-payment and performance guarantees to original equipment manufacturers supplying wind farm components — turbines, grid-connection infrastructure, cables, transformer stations and sub-stations — against a total project cost of roughly EUR 4 billion, with the EIB citing an expected mobilisation of approximately EUR 8 billion in wind energy equipment investment across the EU. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95948 / intervention 151841).

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 200 million risk-sharing guarantee with Banco Santander SA on 19 December 2025 under the "Santander Pan-EU Defence Supply Chain" project (EIB ref. 20250338), against a total project cost of EUR 560 million. The instrument targets large corporate buyers and their suppliers whose main activity is in the security and defence sector, addressing financing gaps tied to information asymmetry, collateral constraints and credit-screening frictions. The EIB frames the operation under Article 309(c) TFEU, tying it to European strategic autonomy and defence-industrial resilience objectives; Global Trade Alert separately logged the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 250 million guarantee tranche with Banco Santander SA on 19 December 2025 (approved 2 December 2025) under the "Santander Pan-EU Supply Chain" project (EIB ref. 20231000), part of a proposed EUR 500 million total EIB commitment mobilising an estimated EUR 1,200 million in on-lending. The EIB assumes credit risk on new "confirming line" reverse-factoring facilities, letting Santander extend supply-chain finance on better terms to SMEs, mid-caps and EU strategic-sector suppliers, including higher-risk buyers. Global Trade Alert separately logged the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 200 million risk-sharing guarantee with Piraeus Bank SA on 19 December 2025 under the "Piraeus Bank Growth4MidCaps LRS II" facility, mobilising a total portfolio of EUR 560 million in on-lending to Greek mid-cap companies. The guarantee gives Piraeus Bank concentration relief, credit-loss protection and capital relief so it can offer eligible mid-caps lower interest rates, longer maturities and reduced collateral requirements. The scheme is horizontal (no sector or material targeting disclosed) and was separately logged by Global Trade Alert as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

On 19 December 2025 the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government issued Notice 深府规〔2025〕10号, "Implementation Measures for Further Attracting and Utilizing Foreign Investment" (effective 1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028, superseding 深府规〔2024〕6号). The measures combine market-access steps (advanced-manufacturing FDI access, foreign biomedicine clinical trials, cross-border data-flow pilots) with tiered cash rewards for foreign direct investment: up to RMB 50 million/year (cumulative cap RMB 150 million) for large manufacturing FDI, RMB 5-8 million one-time awards for multinational regional/global headquarters, and up to RMB 6 million one-time awards for foreign-invested R&D centers. Global Trade Alert logged the same state act as two separate interventions split by sector tag.

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

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

Australia's government-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation announced on 18 December 2025 an AUD 147 million (approx. USD 97 million) investment backing Aula Energy's Carmody's Hill Wind Farm, a 256.2 MW, 42-turbine project in mid-north South Australia (180km north of Adelaide) connecting into the existing 275kV Davenport-to-Brinkworth transmission line. The CEFC states this is the first wind farm to reach notice-to-proceed with Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) agreement support and the first large-scale wind farm in the National Electricity Market to reach notice-to-proceed in 2025. Aula Energy has secured an offtake agreement covering more than 40% of generation with Snowy Hydro; the project is expected to support up to 200 construction jobs and power the equivalent of over 195,000 South Australian homes. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-aid intervention (state act 95753 / intervention 151501).

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 400 million unfunded risk-sharing guarantee operation with Barclays Europe on 18 December 2025 (EIB project ref. 20250198, "Barclays Pan-EU Wind Power Package RS"), the first-ever EIB-Barclays cooperation and a bank-level sub-operation under the EIB's broader Pan-EU Wind Power Package Risk Sharing envelope. Barclays will issue counter-guaranteed advance-payment and performance bonds to wind-energy original equipment manufacturers (turbines, cables, substations, foundations, grid interconnectors), with EUR 250 million of the guarantee capacity earmarked for Germany and EUR 150 million for other EU member states, and the EIB citing an expected mobilisation of roughly EUR 800 million in wind supply-chain investment EU-wide. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 96017 / intervention 151940).

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 270 million unfunded partial-delegation risk-sharing guarantee operation with HSBC Continental Europe on 18 December 2025 (EIB project ref. 20240190, "HSBC Pan-EU Wind Package RS Facility"), a bank-level sub-operation under the EIB's broader Pan-EU Wind Power Package Risk Sharing envelope (ref. 20230650, approved 13 December 2023). HSBC will issue counter- guaranteed advance-payment and performance bonds to EU wind-energy equipment manufacturers (turbines, cables, substations, grid interconnectors), against a total project cost of roughly EUR 4,320 million, with the disclosed country allocation split roughly EUR 158.8 million to Germany and EUR 111.2 million to Greece. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 96018 / intervention 151942).

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 100 million multi-beneficiary intermediated loan with Piraeus Bank SA on 18 December 2025 under the "Piraeus Bank L4SMEs Security & Defence" project (EIB ref. 20250612, approved 12 November 2025). At least 50% of the on-lent amount must go to SMEs and mid-caps active in Greece's security and defence sector, addressing constrained access to finance these firms face due to sector-specific sensitivities and dual-use classification. The EIB describes it as its first-ever financing in Greece dedicated to the security and defence sector, part of a wider Pan-EU Security & Defence Lending Envelope; Global Trade Alert separately logged the transaction (reporting the headline amount as EUR 200 million) as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 50/2025-26 on 18 December 2025 (Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3(ii)), inserting a new Policy Condition No. 08 under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy). Imports of diluted Potassium Clavulanate below a CIF value of USD 77/kg, Potassium Clavulanate (KGA) below USD 180/kg, and specified clavulanic-acid-manufacture intermediates below USD 92/kg are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 November 2026. It is aimed at countering low-priced Chinese potassium-clavulanate exports and protecting Indian bulk-drug fermentation capacity (Aurobindo Pharma and other domestic API makers) amid a global potassium-clavulanate supply glut.

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

On 17-18 December 2025 the Welsh Government published the final guidance and rules booklet for the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) — Universal Layer, the successor to the EU-era Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) for Welsh agriculture. The Universal Layer took effect 1 January 2026 and pays a whole-farm baseline (GBP 70/ha for the first 70 hectares tapering to GBP 2/ha thereafter, plus a GBP 107/ha Social Value Payment, habitat and woodland maintenance payments, and a one-off GBP 1,000 Stability Payment for farms ≤100ha) across roughly 905,545 hectares of declared Welsh farmland. Global Trade Alert records the scheme's Universal Layer tranche at GBP 238 million and classifies it as a financial grant / production subsidy; it carries no explicit foreign-sourcing restriction but, as a domestic whole-farm income-support transfer replacing the former EU BPS, structurally continues UK/devolved agricultural production support post-Brexit.

KfW IPEX-Bank, the project- and export-finance arm of Germany's state-owned development bank KfW, announced on 17 December 2025 that it co-arranged a EUR 1.6 billion (approx. USD 1.88 billion) financing package for CEE RF9, a repowering fund managed by CEE Group (a Brookfield Asset Management-backed renewables asset manager), alongside UniCredit, CIBC, ING, SMBC and SEB. The financing funds equipment upgrades (more powerful turbines and PV modules) across at least 29 of CEE Group's 45 existing wind and solar plants in Germany, with individual plants also located in France, targeting a capacity increase from 457 MW to approximately 1.1 GW (a 140%+ increase) by 2030. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95847 / intervention 151684).

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

On 16 December 2025, Public Services and Procurement Canada implemented the Buy Canadian Procurement Policy Framework, bringing into force (a) the Policy on Prioritizing Canadian Materials in Federal Procurement, which mandates use of Canadian steel, wood products and aluminum in federal defence and construction contracts valued at CAD 25 million or more that contain at least CAD 250,000 of those materials where Canadian supply exists, and (b) the Policy on Prioritizing Canadian Suppliers and Canadian Content in Strategic Federal Procurements, which applies a bid-price discount margin favouring Canadian suppliers in procurements tied to Canada's economic, industrial and innovation priorities. Complementary amendments to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Procurement Inquiry Regulations, effective 15 December 2025, remove CITT jurisdiction to review procurement measures that restrict participation to, or favour, Canadian suppliers, goods, services, materials or subcontractors. The framework applies immediately to procurements of CAD 25 million and above and is scheduled to expand to contracts of CAD 5 million and above by spring 2026. Budget 2025 allocates roughly CAD 186 million over five years to implement the framework, including CAD 79.9 million for a new Small and Medium Business Procurement Program.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement 2025 No. 72 on 16 December 2025, the final anti-dumping determination concluding a five-year package of definitive duties on imports of certain pork and pig by-products originating in the European Union. Final duty rates range from 4.9% to 19.8% by exporter — significantly lower than the provisional security-deposit rates applied since 10 September 2025 (31–44%), with excess provisional deposits to be refunded. The measure covers fresh, chilled, and frozen pork; edible offal of pigs; pig fat and pig-fat products; and pig intestines, bladders, and stomachs across HS Chapters 02, 05, and 15, and entered into force on 17 December 2025 for a period of five years.

The European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund (together, EIB Group) signed a EUR 197 million financial guarantee with Coop Pank on 16 December 2025, protecting the senior (EUR 171 million) and mezzanine (EUR 26 million) tranches of a EUR 200 million synthetic securitisation of Coop Pank's SME and mid-cap loan portfolio. The capital relief lets Coop Pank originate up to EUR 249 million in new loans and leases to Estonian SMEs and mid-caps through end-2028, with at least EUR 49 million earmarked for gender-equality lending and at least EUR 17 million for climate action/environmental sustainability. It is Coop Pank's first synthetic securitisation and the first such structure in the Baltics based entirely on a single-country loan portfolio. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

The Nordic Investment Bank signed a EUR 12 million (USD 14.1 million), seven-year loan with Koskisen Corporation on 16 December 2025 to co-finance the next phase of growth at the company's Järvelä sawmill and panel-production plant in Finland. The financing supports new channel dryers that expand drying capacity by roughly 15%, a new briquette production line, and modernisation of core-composer and scarf-jointing lines in panel production, part of a programme targeting sawn timber output growth from about 400,000 m3 to 450,000 m3 and plywood output from 65,000 m3 to 80,000 m3 annually. Global Trade Alert logs the loan as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention.

KfW IPEX-Bank, the project- and export-finance arm of Germany's state-owned development bank KfW, announced on 16 December 2025 a EUR 150 million loan to Nowega GmbH, a Münster-based transmission system operator, to convert and expand its hydrogen infrastructure and develop biogas infrastructure. DekaBank co-financed a further EUR 30 million, bringing the total package to EUR 180 million. The financing supports converting existing high-pressure gas pipelines (part of Nowega's 1,500 km network) for hydrogen transport as part of Germany's national hydrogen core network (Wasserstoffkernnetz) build-out; KfW IPEX-Bank previously provided Nowega EUR 40 million for the same purpose in 2020. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95711 / intervention 151431).

The European Investment Bank Group (EIB and EIF) and Banco Sabadell announced on 16 December 2025 a package unlocking EUR 1.8 billion in financing for Spanish SMEs and mid-caps, structured through a mortgage bond (EUR 500 million EIB) and a securitisation transaction (EUR 270 million EIB plus EUR 52.5 million EIF in the senior tranche). The EIF-guaranteed tranche includes a green-loan component exceeding EUR 52 million. Within the mortgage bond, up to EUR 180 million is earmarked for flood-reconstruction and preventive-resilience financing and up to EUR 138 million for agricultural-sector modernisation (irrigation associations, infrastructure). Global Trade Alert separately logs the EIF's EUR 52.2 million contribution as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.