Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 8 December 2023 the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a direct final rule (88 FR 85479; FR Doc 2023-26532) making two export-liberalisation amendments to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). First, BIS removes Chemical and Biological Weapons (CB) proliferation column controls from the Commerce Country Chart for exports of certain pathogens and toxins (ECCNs 1C351, 1C353, and 1C354) when destined to Australia Group (AG) member countries, on the basis that AG members operate equivalent domestic CBW-export controls. Second, the rule revises the Crime Control and Detection (CC) column entries for Austria, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland, reflecting the updated US assessment of those countries' law-enforcement export-control standards. Both changes are effective on publication and reduce US export-licensing burdens for allied-country destinations without altering controls for non-allied markets.

Malaysia's New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030) is the fourth-edition national industrial master plan launched on 1 September 2023 by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim under the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI). Spanning seven years to 2030, NIMP 2030 adopts a mission-based approach with 4 missions, 21 strategies and 62 action plans, mobilising an RM95bn investment envelope (predominantly private-sector capital channelled through private equity and the capital markets). The plan targets a step-change in manufacturing-sector economic complexity, deeper local-industry linkages and expanded participation in global supply chains, with explicit numerical targets for the manufacturing sector's GDP contribution and annual growth by 2030.

The German Federal Cabinet adopted the Fortschreibung (update) of the 2020 Nationale Wasserstoffstrategie on 26 July 2023, led by BMWK (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action). The update doubles Germany's domestic electrolyser-capacity target from 5 GW to at least 10 GW by 2030, sets a hydrogen-demand target of 95–130 TWh/year by 2030 (rising to 360–500 TWh by 2045), and lays out a four-pillar framework covering supply (domestic + import diversification), infrastructure (H2-Kernnetz core network), demand (industrial decarbonisation + heavy-mobility), and the action framework (€18 bn KTF allocation, IPCEI Hy2Tech/Hy2Use, H2Global double-auction import mechanism, Klimaschutzverträge/carbon contracts for difference). It is the parent authority for subsequent instruments including the H2-Beschleunigungsgesetz and the Oct 2024 Bundesnetzagentur approval of the Wasserstoff-Kernnetz.

On 25 July 2023 Egypt published Law No. 160 of 2023 in the Official Gazette, amending Investment Law No. 72 of 2017 to expand and modernise the country's foreign-direct-investment incentive architecture. The law universalises General Incentives (stamp-duty exemptions, land-registration-fee relief, reduced customs duties on capital goods) to all investment projects regardless of establishment date, broadens the Golden License single-permit regime to strategic/national projects and PPP infrastructure, and unlocks the Free Zones system for previously excluded energy-intensive sectors — petroleum manufacturing, fertilizers, iron and steel, LNG liquefaction and transportation — subject to Supreme Council of Energy approval. A Special Incentive of 33–55% tax credit on income from qualifying new industrial investment projects was introduced; the Special Incentives establishment window was subsequently extended three years to October 2026 by Cabinet Decree No. 1203 of 2024. As of December 2025 GAFI had approved 44 Golden Licenses under this architecture.

Poland's Minister of Development and Technology, Waldemar Buda, established a temporary compulsory administrator (tymczasowy zarządca przymusowy) over the Grupa Azoty S.A. shares held by sanctioned Russian oligarch Vyacheslav Kantor through three holding vehicles — Norica Holding S.à r.l. (Luxembourg), Opansa Enterprises Limited and Rainbee Holdings Limited (both Cyprus) — which together controlled 19.82% of the state-linked fertiliser and chemicals group, worth over PLN 0.5bn. The ministry cited Kantor's inclusion on Poland's sanctions list and the protection of the country's economic and energy security, and stated its intent to find a buyer for the stake and compensate Kantor. The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw (WSA) later overturned the decision establishing the administration; the ministry did not appeal, and the ruling became final around 30 July 2024, ending the administrator's mandate — though the underlying EU/Polish sanctions on Kantor continue to freeze his ability to exercise any rights attached to the shares.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations (CWCR, 15 CFR Part 710) to lower the concentration threshold above which mixtures containing a Schedule 2A chemical trigger declaration and export/import reporting obligations — from 30% to 10% by weight or volume. The three affected Schedule 2A chemicals are Amiton (a nerve-agent precursor), PFIB (a fluoromonomer byproduct), and BZ (an incapacitating agent). The change implements OPCW Conference of States Parties Decision C-14/DEC.4 (2009) and takes immediate effect on publication; 10% is the statutory floor set by the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act (CWCIA).

The Act on Promotion of a Smooth Transition to a Decarbonized Growth-Oriented Economic Structure (Law No. 46 of 2023), passed by the Diet on 12 May 2023 and promulgated 19 May 2023, establishes Japan's Green Transformation (GX) financing and carbon pricing framework. The government will issue 20 trillion yen in GX Economy Transition Bonds (the world's first sovereign transition bonds) to catalyze 150 trillion yen of public-private decarbonization investment over ten years (2023-2032). Bonds are repaid through a two-pillar carbon pricing system: a GX Emissions Trading Scheme (GX-ETS) launching voluntarily in FY2023, becoming mandatory for emitters >100,000 tCO2/year from FY2026; and a GX-surcharge on fossil fuel importers phased in from FY2028.

MOTIE finalised the 31st amendment of the Public Notice on Trade of Strategic Items on 24 April 2023, effective 28 April 2023, adding 741 items to the Russia/Belarus situational-licence (상황허가) list. The added items span industrial machinery, petroleum and gas refining equipment, steel, chemicals, automotive goods and quantum computers judged to have high military-diversion potential. MOTIE stated the amendment brings Korea's export-control coverage of Russia/Belarus closer to that of the US, EU and Japan, incorporating 2022 international export-control-regime agreements and reflecting the US's 2nd-6th Russia sanctions rounds and a substantial part of the EU's measures.

Switzerland's Federal Council amended the Ordinance on measures related to the situation in Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72) to align with the remainder of the EU's tenth sanctions package, effective 8pm on 29 March 2023. The amendment extends the existing Russia import ban to additional petroleum products (including petroleum jelly and petroleum coke), bitumen/asphalt, bituminous mastics, carbon and synthetic rubber, adds further export controls and designations linked to drone transfers to Russia, and tightens reporting obligations in the financial sector.

On 25 February 2023, one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/427, the 10th package of sanctions, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (26 February 2023). The package bans imports of asphalt and synthetic rubber from Russia (with a temporary transitional import quota for rubber products running to 30 June 2024), expands the export ban on dual-use and advanced-technology goods, suspends further Russian media broadcasting licences in the EU, and designates 87 individuals and 34 entities — including Iranian persons and entities involved in drone manufacture and supply, and 96 entities tied to Russia's defence-industrial base — to the EU asset-freeze/travel-ban list.

On 24 February 2023, to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK government announced a new sanctions package including an import ban on over 140 goods (including iron and steel products processed in third countries), an export ban on battlefield-relevant goods, and 92 new asset-freeze designations. The measures were legislated by the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/440), which came into force on 21 April 2023, except the third-country-processed iron and steel import provision (Regulation 3), which came into force on 30 September 2023.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/111 on 18 January 2023, imposing a definitive five-year anti-dumping duty of 15.2%-46.4% on imports of fatty acid originating in Indonesia, published in the Official Journal on 19 January 2023 and entering into force the following day. The two sampled exporter groups, PT Musim Mas (with related exporter PT Intibenua Perkasatama) and PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, received individual company-specific rates; a residual rate applies to non-cooperating exporters. On 28 August 2026 the WTO Dispute Settlement Body adopted a panel report (DS622) finding the EU violated the Anti-Dumping Agreement by using the wrong exchange-rate date when converting a portion of export transactions from euro to US dollars, giving the EU 30 days to state its compliance intentions; the underlying duty remains in force pending that process.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/66, adopted 21 October 2022 and published in the Official Journal on 11 January 2023 (OJ L 9), replaces Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 (the EU Dual-Use Recast Regulation) with an updated control list implementing the 2022 multilateral decisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement, MTCR, Australia Group, NSG and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Per GTA's tracking of the CN-code-level change, the update removed 7 six-digit CN codes and added 8 new ones. It entered into force on 12 January 2023, the day after publication.