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

Indonesia banned the export of raw bauxite ore (including washed bauxite) effective 10 June 2023, extending the "hilirisasi" (downstream-isation) doctrine that previously prohibited nickel-ore exports (effective 1 January 2020) to the country's second-largest mineral export. The ban is implemented through the existing Mining Law framework (UU 3/2020 amending UU 4/2009) and operationalised via Ministry of Trade Regulation Permendag 18/2022 on Provisions for Mining-Product Exports. President Joko Widodo formally announced the bauxite-export-ban schedule on 21 December 2022, citing forecast revenue uplift from IDR 21 trillion to IDR 62 trillion (~USD 1.35bn → ~USD 3.9bn) once domestic alumina/ aluminium refining ramps.

Natural Resources Canada published Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy on 8 December 2022, committing $3.8 billion CAD over eight years (drawn from Budget 2022 and the Fall Economic Statement 2022) to develop Canada's position across the critical-minerals value chain. The strategy designates 31 priority minerals, sets six strategic pillars (data and geoscience, investment and trade, indigenous participation, workforce development, regulatory environment, and sustainability), and explicitly positions Canada as the preferred FTA-partner supplier for the US Inflation Reduction Act's domestic-content requirements under CUSMA/USMCA.

Act No. 497/2022 Coll. on the Screening of Foreign Investments and on amendments to certain acts, adopted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 29 November 2022 and promulgated in the Zbierka zákonov on 23 December 2022, established Slovakia's first horizontal ex-ante foreign-direct-investment screening regime. The Act took effect on 1 March 2023, transposing EU Regulation 2019/452 into Slovak law and replacing the prior sector-specific approach under Act No. 45 on critical infrastructure. Screening is administered by the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic across three procedures (mandatory, voluntary, and ex officio) and covers transactions in defence, dual-use, critical infrastructure, critical raw materials, biotechnology, AI, semiconductors and other emerging technologies. The Ministry can prohibit, condition or unwind non-compliant transactions and impose administrative penalties.

On 28 October 2022, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (François-Philippe Champagne) and Minister of Natural Resources (Jonathan Wilkinson) issued a new policy on how the Investment Canada Act applies to investments by foreign state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Canada's critical minerals sector. Acquisitions of control of a Canadian critical-minerals business by a foreign SOE will now only be approved "on an exceptional basis," and any SOE participation in a Canadian business operating in a critical-minerals sector or supply chain will automatically trigger national-security scrutiny. The policy applies to the 31 minerals on Canada's Critical Minerals List (established 11 March 2021) and preceded, by five days, the 2 November 2022 orders forcing three Chinese-controlled companies to divest lithium-junior stakes.

On 18 October 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Saudi Arabia's National Industrial Strategy (NIS) under the Vision 2030 umbrella, with delivery led by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM). The strategy prioritises 118 segments within 12 industrial sub-sectors (including downstream chemicals, automotive, aerospace, machinery, and metals), identifies more than 800 investment opportunities estimated at ~USD 266bn, and sets binding 2030/2035 targets: triple manufacturing GDP by 2030, raise industrial exports to SAR 557bn (~USD 148bn), bring cumulative additional investment to SAR 1.3 trillion, and grow factories from ~10,000 to ~36,000 by 2035. NIS sits alongside the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP, 2019) and the Public Investment Fund's strategic-sector mandates as the third leg of the Kingdom's non-oil-economy build-out.

The Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169), signed by President Biden on 16 August 2022, contains the largest single package of clean-energy and clean-manufacturing subsidies in US history — Congressional Budget Office scored the energy and climate provisions at $369B over 10 years, with subsequent Treasury / academic estimates reaching $800B-$1.2T as uptake exceeded baseline. Core mechanisms include the Section 30D Clean Vehicle credit ($7,500 per qualifying EV), the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (per-unit credits for domestically-produced battery cells, modules, electrodes, and critical-mineral processing), the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, and the Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Credit. Critically, the law contains Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions barring credit eligibility for vehicles or components linked to entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.

The Act on the Promotion of Ensuring National Security through Integrated Implementation of Economic Measures (Law No. 43 of 2022), enacted 18 May 2022, establishes a four-pillar framework: (1) supply-chain resilience for "specified critical products," (2) security of critical infrastructure, (3) state-backed development of "specified critical technologies," and (4) non-disclosure of nationally sensitive patents. A December 2022 Cabinet Order designated 11 product categories as specified critical products, including semiconductors, storage batteries, permanent magnets, cloud programs, LNG, critical minerals, machine tools, and aircraft parts. Competent ministries must publish stable-supply plans, can fund private-sector surveys, and may provide subsidies to qualifying firms.

The Uganda Mining and Minerals Act 2022, passed by Parliament on 17 February 2022 and signed into law by President Museveni on 14 October 2022, replaces the Mining Act 2003 (Cap 148) and establishes a comprehensive new legal framework for Uganda's extractive sector. The Act grants the Republic of Uganda a 15% free-carried equity interest in all large- and medium-scale mining operations, introduces Mineral Production-Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) as a new licensing instrument alongside reformed exploration, retention, and mining licences, and establishes the Uganda National Mining Company (UNMC) as the state participation vehicle. A mandatory Mineral Beneficiation framework ties export permits to local-processing thresholds, while tightened local-content rules cover procurement, employment, and services obligations, and a new ASM formalisation regime introduces traceability and Mineral Buying Centre requirements.

The Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) granted five-year exploration licences on 14 February 2022 (formal ceremony 23 February 2022) to three operators — Cook Islands Cobalt (CIC) Limited, Moana Minerals Limited (a subsidiary of Ocean Minerals LLC), and CIIC Seabed Resources Limited — under the Seabed Minerals Act 2019, marking the first commercial seabed-mineral exploration rights awarded in any Pacific island EEZ. The licences cover polymetallic nodule deposits across the Cook Islands' ~1.96 million km² exclusive economic zone, estimated at approximately 6.7 billion wet tonnes rich in cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese at 4,500–5,300 m depth on the abyssal plain. Initial five-year terms run to February 2027; in November 2025 the SBMA confirmed all three licences will be extended a further five years to at least 2032, pending renewal applications evaluated by the independent Licensing Panel.

The Government of Serbia adopted, on 20 January 2022, the "Uredba o prestanku važenja Uredbe o utvrđivanju Prostornog plana područja posebne namene za realizaciju projekta eksploatacije i prerade minerala jadarita 'Jadar'" — a decree terminating the 2020 Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose Area (SPSPA, Sl. glasnik RS 26/2020) that had underpinned Rio Tinto's Jadar lithium-borate project in the Mačva District. Published in Sl. glasnik RS br. 8/2022. Five days later, on 25 January 2022, the Ministry of Environmental Protection separately annulled its decision approving the project's environmental impact assessment study. Together the two acts cancelled all administrative permits, decisions and resolutions tied to the Jadar project, following weeks of nationwide protests against the mine.