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

On 12 February 2026 the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) concluded a preliminary investigation into Chinese-origin butyl acrylate imports (HS subheading 2916.12) and voted to recommend provisional anti-dumping duties of 9.53–19.17% to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF). MOEF formally decided and gazetted the provisional duty on 22 April 2026, effective from that date through 21 August 2026 pending the KTC's final determination (expected around July 2026). The case was initiated after LG Chem — the sole remaining domestic butyl acrylate producer — petitioned the KTC in July 2025, citing a roughly 25% rise in Chinese import volumes against a 30%+ drop in its own domestic sales volume between 2021 and 2024.

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

At its regular session on 22 July 2025, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved an additional 40% customs duty (on the unit measure of the imported product) on tile and ceramic adhesive materials imported from all countries of origin, running for four years without reduction and taking effect 120 days after issuance (20 November 2025). The same session eliminated import license requirements for motor oils/lubricants of all types and for used vehicle spare parts at all federal border crossings, conditional on compliance with national quality standards (oils) and radiation-clearance certification (used spare parts). Global Trade Alert separately logs China, Austria and Czechia as principal affected trade partners for the duty measure, though it applies on a non-discriminatory, all-origins basis. This is one of a recurring series of Iraqi cabinet tariff-schedule actions in 2025-26 driven by state revenue pressure (see the Iraq fiscal-tariff-reform theme for the wider cluster).

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.

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.

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.

Pakistan's National Tariff Commission (NTC) issued its final determination in anti-dumping case ADC-66, imposing a definitive 26.76% ad valorem duty on imports of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) self-adhesive tapes in jumbo rolls (PCT 3919.9010 / 3919.9090) originating from China, effective for five years from January 31, 2025. The investigation, initiated on the petition of domestic manufacturer M/s Universal Coating Films (Pvt.) Limited, found that Chinese-origin BOPP tapes were being dumped into Pakistan at injuriously low prices, causing material injury to the domestic packaging-tape industry. The measure supersedes the provisional 14.99% duty imposed in January 2025 and was announced in the final determination report published on 24 May 2025.