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

On 4 June 2026 USTR published a formal Notice of Determination in the Federal Register (doc 2026-11158, docket USTR-2025-0043) concluding that Brazil's acts, policies, and practices in six areas — digital trade and electronic payment services, unfair preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, IP protection, ethanol market access, and illegal deforestation — are unreasonable and burden US commerce. Simultaneously, USTR proposed a 25% ad valorem tariff on all Brazilian-origin goods, subject to ~1,600 HTS subheading exclusions including approximately 430 civil-aircraft lines. A public hearing is scheduled for 6 July 2026 and USTR faces a statutory deadline of 15 July 2026 to finalise any responsive action; the tariff has not yet taken effect.

On 3 June 2026 the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal for the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) — COM(2026) 502 — as part of the European Technological Sovereignty Package. The CADA proposes to triple EU data-centre capacity over five to seven years, introduces a single EU-wide sovereignty assessment framework for cloud and AI services, and establishes common EU-level procurement mechanisms for public administrations prioritising EU-based cloud and AI infrastructure. As a Commission proposal the CADA now enters co-decision (European Parliament + Council) and is not yet law; it is structurally distinct from the co-adopted Chips Act 2.0, addressing cloud infrastructure and AI compute capacity rather than semiconductor supply chains.

The European Investment Bank signed its first-ever loan to N-ERGIE Aktiengesellschaft on 12 May 2026, a EUR 200 million long-term facility to finance renovation, reinforcement and digitalisation of N-ERGIE Netz GmbH's electricity distribution infrastructure in northern Bavaria, particularly the Nuremberg metropolitan region. The financing covers overhead lines, underground cables, substations, and network control/automation systems, and is intended to accommodate renewable-generation connection and rising electricity demand from electromobility and heat pumps over the 2025-2026 investment programme.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính issued Directive 38/CĐ-TTg on 5 May 2026, mobilising a cross-ministerial enforcement campaign against intellectual property infringement running 7–30 May 2026 with a 31 May reporting deadline. The directive explicitly responds to the USTR 2026 Special 301 designation of Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country — the first such designation in eleven years — which triggers a statutory 30-day window for USTR to decide whether to open a Section 301 investigation. Ministries of Public Security, Industry and Trade (Market Surveillance), Information and Communications, and Culture are mobilised for coordinated raids targeting counterfeit-goods exporters, pirated-content platforms, and software-copyright violators, with the Prime Minister signalling enforcement will be permanent rather than a one-off campaign.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative released the 2026 Special 301 Report on 30 April 2026, designating Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC) — the most severe category under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2242). This is the first PFC designation since Ukraine held the status from 2013 through 2015, a gap of approximately 11 years. The PFC designation triggers a statutory 30-day window (expiring ~30 May 2026) within which USTR must decide whether to initiate a Section 301 investigation under 19 U.S.C. § 2412(b)(2)(A), which could lead to tariffs, withdrawal of trade benefits, or other Section 301 enforcement remedies against Vietnam. Separately, the EU was added to the Watch List for the first time, citing AI training-data, geographical-indications, and customs-enforcement concerns.

On 26 April 2026, the UAE Cabinet, chaired by Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, approved a four-part industrial-resilience package: (i) a National Industrial Resilience Fund with AED 1 billion (~USD 272m) capital managed by Emirates Development Bank over five years covering food industries, manufacturing, primary metals, mechanical/electrical/chemical industries, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, advanced technology, and construction — designed to localise over 5,000 critical products and link confirmed procurement demand with targeted financing for local manufacturers; (ii) structural overhaul of the National In-Country Value (ICV) Programme, transitioning it from incentive-based to MANDATORY across federal entities and companies in which the government holds 25% or more; (iii) a National Product Retail Presence Policy strengthening visibility of UAE-manufactured goods in retail and digital channels (Phase 1: bottled water, dairy, eggs, poultry, bread, flour, vegetable oils, seasonal vegetables); and (iv) a National Industrial Data Committee chaired by Hasan Jassim Al Nowais (Undersecretary, MoIAT), with AI-driven forecasting and risk management integrated into industrial-resilience monitoring.

On 23 April 2026, the Council of the European Union adopted the 20th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2026/506 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral sanctions) and Council Regulation (EU) 2026/511 amending Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings — 120 additional individuals and entities, the largest single tranche in two years). The package operationalises and extends the crypto-sanctions architecture introduced in the 19th package and constructs the legal scaffolding for a future full prohibition on maritime services to vessels carrying Russian crude/petroleum products. Headline measures: (i) full sectoral prohibition on transactions with crypto-asset service providers and exchange platforms established in Russia or Belarus, plus designation of the rouble-backed stablecoin RUBx and the digital rouble (CBDC) on Annex LIII — effective 24 May 2026, with EU support for the digital rouble's development banned outright; (ii) 36 new energy-sector listings spanning upstream extraction, refining and transportation; (iii) prohibition on providing technical, financial, brokering and insurance services to Russia-flagged, Russian-certified or Russian-managed LNG tankers and icebreakers effective 25 April 2026, extending to foreign-flagged vessels operating in Russian interests by January 2027 and culminating in a categorical ban on LNG terminal services to Russian-controlled entities on 1 January 2027; (iv) full transaction ban on 20 Russian banks plus four third-country banks listed for SPFS connectivity / sanctions circumvention; (v) 46 newly listed shadow-fleet vessels and new tanker sale-due-diligence obligations on EU shipping operators; (vi) 58 designations of companies and associated individuals in the Russian military-industrial complex including drone developers/manufacturers; (vii) further Annex IV third-country circumvention enabler listings (China, Hong Kong, Turkey, UAE); (viii) parallel measures against Belarus. Entry into force on 24 April 2026 (day following publication in OJ L_202600506), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

President Ilham Aliyev signed Decree No. 649 on 20 April 2026, transferring eight named limestone and sand-gravel deposits across six Azerbaijani districts (Garadagh/Baku, Absheron, Zagatala, Balakan, Oghuz, Imishli) to state-owned AzerGold CJSC, extending the state mining champion's mandate beyond precious metals into non-metal construction aggregates previously licensed to private operators. The decree also establishes a "Digital Ecology" single-window e-licensing system — effective 1 August 2027 — for all non-oil-gas subsoil-use activities including rights-granting, state expertise, operator reporting, and auction/tender organisation, replacing Azerbaijan's fragmented licensing regime. Cabinet of Ministers is directed to develop proposals on strengthened operator liability and monitoring systems within three and six months respectively, creating an implementing-regulations pipeline through end-2026.

On 7 April 2026, Morocco's Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, officially launched the Cadastre Minier Numérique du Maroc (dmcm.mem.gov.ma) at GITEX Africa in Marrakech — a national digital registry consolidating geological potential data, administrative records and regulatory information for all mining titles nationwide. The platform dematerialises permit application, renewal and monitoring procedures previously run through paper-based, region-by-region administrative circuits, and is framed by MTEDD as part of a broader ongoing mining sector reform. No budget, title count, or phased-deployment timeline was disclosed at launch.

On 31 March 2026 the Government of Vietnam issued Decree 96/2026/ND-CP, the principal implementing decree for the Law on Investment 2025 (Law 143/2025/QH15). It takes effect on its signing date and replaces Decree 31/2021/ND-CP, Decree 19/2025/ND-CP and Decree 239/2025/ND-CP — the first comprehensive overhaul of Vietnam's general FDI-licensing framework since 2021. The decree operationalises the new Special Investment Procedure (a registration-and-commitment fast-track in industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech parks, concentrated digital- technology zones, free-trade zones, international financial centres and economic-zone functional areas) and details the list of 16 specially-incentivised sectors covering semiconductor and chip manufacturing, AI, big data, digital technology and high-tech R&D. It also rewrites foreign-investor market-access conditions, document procedures and dispute / grievance mechanisms.

Minister of Trade Regulation No. 5 of 2026, signed on 26 March 2026 and effective 1 April 2026, is the fourth amendment to Permendag 23/2023 on Export Policy and Regulation. It introduces three substantively significant changes: (i) restricts issuance of Export Approval (Persetujuan Ekspor / PE) for ilmenite and rutile concentrate to holders of IUP/IUPK Operasi Produksi mining permits — eliminating the prior Izin Usaha Industri (IUI) industrial pathway — extending Indonesia's hilirisasi vertical-integration doctrine to titanium feedstock; (ii) removes the Eksportir Terdaftar (ET) registered- exporter requirement for industrial tin exports, simplifying the export chain to PE + Laporan Surveyor (LS) only; (iii) mandates electronic and automatic issuance of PE where the integrated INATRADE/SINSW system documentation is complete, digitising the export-licensing chain. Additional changes tighten kratom ET validity to a three-year cap and reassign marine-species transport- document authority from the Ministry of Forestry to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

On 13 March 2026 USTR Jamieson Greer and Ecuador's Minister of Production, Foreign Trade and Investment Luis Alberto Jaramillo signed the United States–Ecuador Agreement on Reciprocal Trade in Washington, formalising the framework agreed in November 2025. Ecuador commits to preferential treatment for >90% of its agricultural schedule (including tariff elimination on soybeans, fresh/processed fruit, alcoholic beverages, tea, tree/ground nuts, dairy, beef, pork and poultry), to discontinue applying the Andean Price Band System to US-origin agricultural goods, to accept US remanufactured goods and US motor-vehicle safety/emissions standards, and to commit on digital-trade non-discrimination plus the multilateral moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions. The US in return grants MFN tariff treatment to qualifying Ecuadorian goods that "cannot be grown, mined, or naturally produced" in the US, by 1 August 2026 or entry into force (whichever is later). The Agreement enters into force 30 days after both parties notify completion of domestic procedures.

On 21 February 2026 in New Delhi, during the State Visit of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, India and Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Critical Minerals between India's Ministry of Mines and Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy. The MoU establishes a bilateral framework spanning the entire critical-minerals value chain — exploration, mining, processing, recycling, and refining — with explicit focus on rare-earth elements, lithium, nickel, cobalt, niobium, manganese, and other strategic minerals. It was issued alongside a broader Joint Statement targeting USD 30 billion in bilateral trade by 2030 and a ten-year strategic-partnership roadmap covering AI, defence, energy, agriculture, and digital transformation.

Kenya's Senate introduced the Artificial Intelligence Bill, 2026 (Senate Bills No. 4 of 2025) on 19 February 2026, sponsored by Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu; the bill received its first reading on 2 April 2026 and was committed to the Senate Standing Committee on Information, Communication and Technology for public-input review. The bill establishes a risk-based AI regulatory framework explicitly modelled on the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), creating a four-tier classification (prohibited / high-risk / limited-risk / minimal-risk) with conformity- assessment, technical-documentation, and human-oversight obligations for high-risk AI systems. It creates the Office of the Artificial Intelligence Commissioner as a new statutory regulator with licensing, enforcement, and administrative-penalty powers, and bans social-scoring systems, real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, emotion recognition in workplaces and education, and predictive policing based on profiling. The bill is the first comprehensive national AI regulatory instrument in Africa, closing a structural geographic gap in the global AI-governance architecture and positioning Kenya as the Brussels-effect template-recipient for the African continent.

On 12 February 2026, Ambassador Jamieson Greer of the Office of the United States Trade Representative oversaw the signing of the US-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) in Washington, DC. The instrument was signed under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO). Headline terms: (i) US IEEPA reciprocal-tariff rate on Taiwan reduced from 20% to 15% and Section 232 auto-parts/timber/lumber rate cut from 25% to 15%; (ii) Taiwan eliminates or reduces 99% of its tariff barriers on US goods, most immediately and the remainder phased over three years; (iii) Taiwan side commits ~USD 85bn in directed purchases through 2029 (USD 44.4bn LNG/crude, USD 15.2bn civil aircraft and engines, USD 25.2bn power equipment); (iv) sectoral chapters covering tariffs, non-tariff barriers, digital trade, economic security, and high-tech supply-chain resilience. Operationally linked to the 15 January 2026 AIT-TECRO Memorandum of Understanding on investment, under which Taiwan pledges USD 250bn in direct Taiwanese-enterprise investment in the US plus USD 250bn in Taiwan-government credit guarantees (USD 500bn total) to fund US-side industrial parks/clusters in advanced semiconductors, energy, and AI manufacturing. Entry into force is conditional on Taiwan's Legislative Yuan completing its review.

On 10 February 2026 in Baku, US Vice President JD Vance and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a Charter on Strategic Partnership — a foundational bilateral instrument covering five cooperation tracks: economy and trade, energy, connectivity and digital development (including AI), security and defense, and critical-minerals transit. The Charter commits both governments to facilitate the transit of critical minerals via the Trans-Caspian Middle Corridor to global markets, and formally recognises the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) as the multi-modal connectivity link between mainland Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The instrument builds on the 8 August 2025 MoU signed in Washington during the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Summit that established the Strategic Working Group tasked with drafting the Charter, and marks the first US Vice-Presidential visit to Azerbaijan since Dick Cheney in 2008.

Brazil's federal innovation-financing agency FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), under the MCTI/FNDCT umbrella, published a BRL 300 million (~USD 56.9 million) public call — "Finep Mais Inovação Brasil – Rodada 2 – Cadeias Agroindustriais Sustentáveis" — offering non-repayable economic-subsidy grants for private-sector research, development and innovation projects in sustainable and digital agro-industrial chains, covering food innovation, food and nutritional security, agricultural productivity, and technical textiles. Applicant companies must be Brazilian and may partner with Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institutions (ICTs). Proposals are accepted on a continuous-flow basis until 2026-09-30 18:00 (Brasília time), or earlier if the budget is exhausted.

KfW, Germany's state-owned development bank, and grenke AG signed their fourth joint global loan agreement, providing EUR 200 million to fund below-market leasing financing for German small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-market companies with annual revenue up to EUR 500 million. Eligible investments include digitalization, climate protection, and infrastructure projects. The subsidy is delivered as a promotional discount ("Förderrabatt") credited directly to the leasing customer at contract conclusion.

On 6 February 2026 Presidents Trump and Modi announced a framework for an Interim Trade Agreement that resets the bilateral tariff posture installed in 2025. Two operative instruments: (i) an executive order signed 6 February eliminating, effective 7 February 2026, the additional 25% IEEPA "Russian-oil" duty on Indian imports imposed by EO 14329 (27 August 2025), conditional on India's commitment to cease buying Russian crude and to expand defence cooperation; and (ii) reduction of the EO 14257 reciprocal-tariff rate on India from 25% to 18% on listed product categories (textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastics and rubber, organic chemicals, home décor, artisanal products, certain machinery), to take effect on finalisation of the Interim Agreement. India commits to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of agricultural products (DDGs, red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil, wine, spirits) and to purchase >USD 500bn of US energy, ICT, coal, aircraft and aircraft parts, and precious-metals products over five years. The framework also commits the parties to negotiating "robust, ambitious, and mutually beneficial digital trade rules" and to addressing non-tariff barriers in medical devices, ICT import licensing, and food/agricultural standards. US tariff reductions on Indian generic pharmaceuticals, gems, diamonds, aircraft parts, and certain automotive components are flagged as contingent on completion of the full Interim Agreement.

Italy's Department for Digital Transformation (Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri) and Invitalia S.p.A. signed an implementing agreement on 4-5 February 2026 establishing the EUR 733 million "Fondo Nazionale per la Connettività" (National Connectivity Fund), financed under PNRR Mission 1, Component 2, Investment 7. The fund provides non-repayable public grants to private telecom operators for ultra-broadband network build-out through 2029, targeting a minimum 1 Gbit/s download / 200 Mbit/s upload connection for covered property units, and requires a minimum 30% private co-financing share per project. Invitalia manages the fund through 31 December 2030.

On 2 February 2026 the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Board approved a Direct Loan of up to USD 10 billion to an independently governed public-private partnership establishing the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve ("Project Vault"), alongside nearly USD 2 billion of private-sector investment for an envelope of approximately USD 12 billion. The reserve will physically stockpile the 60 minerals on the USGS 2025 Critical Minerals List across multiple US storage facilities, with participating original equipment manufacturers (Clarios, GE Vernova, Western Digital, Boeing) committing to specific volumes and grades and trading partners (Hartree Partners, Mercuria Americas, Traxys) handling sourcing. EXIM characterises the transaction as the largest single financing in its 92-year history and the first use of EXIM authority as the financing vehicle for a domestic strategic-minerals stockpile rather than for export-credit insurance abroad.

The Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued Min Fagai Shuju [2026] No. 46, "Ten Measures to Strengthen the Cultivation of Digital-Economy Innovative Enterprises in Fujian Province," on 2026-01-30, implementing a national NDRC directive (Fagai Shuju [2025] No. 1154) at provincial level. The package bundles ten fiscal, financial, data-access and talent measures aimed at growing Fujian's roster of "unicorn" and "gazelle" digital enterprises from 89 (2020) to a targeted 500+ by 2027, with per-project subsidy caps ranging from RMB 500,000 up to RMB 10,000,000 across different tracks (trusted-data-space pilots, joint labs/tech-transfer platforms, digital-transformation demonstration projects capped at 30% of total project investment). The measure took effect on issuance and is in force through 2028-12-31 (GTA state-act revocation date).

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 400 million, seven-year loan agreement with Swedish hygiene and health group Essity on 29 January 2026 (EIB project ref. 20210374, "Essity Health and Hygiene Products RDI") to finance research, development and innovation expenditure at Essity's R&D centres in Sweden, Germany and France over 2025-2028. The financing targets product and process development across Personal Care, Professional Hygiene and medical wound care, with emphasis on replacing fossil-based plastics with bio-based materials, cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and expanding digital manufacturing solutions; roughly 30% of the RDI spend is earmarked for feminine-care and incontinence-product research. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending intervention (state act 96020 / intervention 151945).

The European Investment Bank signed guarantee agreements with Banco Santander totalling EUR 450 million on 29 January 2026, announced by EIB Group President Nadia Calviño during the Group's results presentation in Brussels. The guarantees are expected to unlock around EUR 900 million in new supply-chain financing for European companies: EUR 400 million for security-and-defence manufacturers (cybersecurity, surveillance, resilience and defence-technology suppliers) under the EIB's EUR 3 billion pan-European intermediated financing instrument for the defence industrial base, and EUR 500 million for companies in clean technologies, telecommunications and digital infrastructure via reverse-factoring supply-chain-finance instruments. Santander is reported as the fourth major European bank to sign under the defence-supply-chain programme, and the clean-tech/digital tranche contributes to the EIB Group's TechEU initiative.

On 29 January 2026, European Council President António Costa and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính signed a Joint Statement in Hanoi upgrading EU-Vietnam bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) — the highest tier in Vietnam's diplomatic hierarchy, placing the EU on the same level as Vietnam's CSPs with China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, and the United States. The CSP establishes a reinforced bilateral cooperation framework spanning critical raw materials, semiconductor supply chains, artificial intelligence, trusted 5G infrastructure, climate and energy transition, security and defence (including cyber and maritime), and full implementation of the 2019 EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) tariff-elimination schedule plus ratification of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). It is the EU's eleventh CSP globally and its second in Southeast Asia (after Singapore, 2024), and constitutes the foundational bilateral parent framework for all future EU-Vietnam cooperation under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) Article 13 third-country strategic-project designation pipeline, given Vietnam's approximately 22 Mt rare-earth reserves — the world's second-largest deposit after China.

On 26 January 2026 Beijing's Dongcheng District (via the Zhongguancun Science Park Dongcheng Zone Management Committee and the district Science and Technology Commission) issued Notice 东城园文〔2026〕2号, "Several Measures of Beijing Dongcheng District on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical and Health Industry," effective 25 February 2026. The 14-article package spans seven chapters covering traditional-Chinese-medicine industry development, product-innovation value realisation, digital medical services, innovative-medicine support, and talent services, with cash grants of up to RMB 20 million per project and up to RMB 10 million per year for a single market entity in the medical-device segment. A draft version was open for public comment from 18 December 2025 to 17 January 2026 before formal issuance.

The New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS-founded multilateral development bank headquartered in Shanghai, signed a USD 100 million equivalent, five-year RMB-denominated loan agreement with Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Co Ltd for the "Greener Shanghai Project." The facility is an on-lending line: Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank will channel the proceeds to sustainable sub-projects across the city, including wind and solar power, environmental-conservation infrastructure, and digital-infrastructure development, expected to benefit roughly 25 million residents of Shanghai and the wider Yangtze River Delta. NDB below-market development-bank pricing functions as an indirect state-adjacent subsidy for Shanghai's green and digital-infrastructure build-out.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a 7-year, EUR 50 million loan with TDC NET A/S to co-finance fibre broadband network rollout investments during 2025-2027, primarily expanding fibre-to-the-premises coverage and activation in the Greater Copenhagen area. This is NIB's second loan to TDC NET for fibre rollout, following a EUR 110 million facility signed in 2022 for 2022-2024 investments. NIB's below-market development-bank funding cost functions as a state-adjacent subsidy for Danish digital infrastructure buildout.

China's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, People's Bank of China and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued Cai Jin [2026] No. 5 on 2026-01-19, optimizing the service-sector loan interest-subsidy policy first launched in August 2025 (Cai Jin [2025] No. 81). The notice extends the scheme through 2026-12-31, raises the per-entity eligible new-loan cap for 2026 to RMB 10 million (subsidy period capped at one year, annual subsidy rate of 1 percentage point, funded 90% by central and 10% by provincial finances), and widens covered sectors from the original eight (catering/accommodation, health, eldercare, childcare, domestic services, culture/entertainment, tourism, sports) to add digital, green and retail categories. It also expands the roster of handling banks to a longer list of state and joint-stock commercial banks.

On 15 January 2026 the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 20/2026/ND-CP, providing detailed implementing regulations for National Assembly Resolution 198/2025/QH15 (17 May 2025) on special mechanisms and policies for the development of the private economic sector. The decree (6 chapters, 17 articles) introduces a synchronized incentive framework covering corporate and personal income tax exemptions, land-access support, science/technology and digital transformation support, and human-resource training. SMEs registering for the first time are exempt from corporate income tax for three consecutive years; innovative startups receive a full CIT exemption for two years followed by a 50% reduction for four years; eligible experts and scientists at innovative startups, R&D centers, and intermediary organizations receive a personal income tax exemption for two years followed by a 50% reduction for four years. The decree took effect on the date of signature, with CIT/PIT incentive provisions retroactively applicable from 17 May 2025 (the effective date of Resolution 198/2025/QH15).

France increased the budgeted fiscal cost of its standing reduced electricity-excise (accise sur l'électricité) scheme for data storage centres for calendar year 2026. The underlying mechanism, codified at Article L312-70 of the Code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS), applies a reduced excise tariff to the fraction of a qualifying data centre's annual electricity consumption exceeding 1 GWh, conditional on meeting eight cumulative infrastructure and energy-efficiency criteria (dedicated digital-data storage/processing/transport function, secured access, energy-management-system certification, waste-heat recovery or efficiency indicators, water-use limits, and a minimum electro-intensity threshold of 2.25%). The scheme is a long-running (since 2019) fiscal-support instrument for France's data-centre industrial base rather than a new measure; GTA logs the 2026 budget increase as a discrete state-aid intervention.

Decree 353/2025/NĐ-CP is the principal implementing instrument of Vietnam's Law on Digital Technology Industry (Law No. 71/2025/QH15), effective 1 January 2026 — the same date as the parent statute. The decree's five chapters and 36 articles operationalise three pillars: (i) a comprehensive State-support and preferential-incentive framework for products, services, and infrastructure across the semiconductor, AI, cloud, fintech, and e-commerce sectors; (ii) a high-quality-human-resources development framework covering training funds, scholarship schemes, and foreign-expert visa fast-tracks; and (iii) Vietnam's first statutory innovation sandbox, allowing organisations to deploy new digital products and business models under time- and scope-limited regulatory carve-outs where current law has not kept pace with practice.

On 30 December 2025 the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued Hufubangui [2025] No. 20, a three-year action plan (1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028) to support the transformation and upgrading of advanced manufacturing. The plan sets quantitative targets — 100 new manufacturing enterprises with annual output above CNY 1 billion by 2028 (cumulative 600+), 500 new above-designated-size supply-chain enterprises, 100+ new national-level green factories, a robot density of 600 units per 10,000 workers, and 70%+ digital-equipment penetration — across next-generation electronics, intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, green low-carbon and fashion consumer-goods industries, plus emerging bets on the low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, embodied intelligence (robotics) and biomanufacturing. It is funded through tiered direct subsidies rather than tax relief: one-off R&D subsidies up to CNY 10 million, equipment/new-materials cost-share up to 30% of contract value (capped at CNY 20 million), technical- transformation loan/leasing interest support up to CNY 20 million cumulative, and 0.8-1.3% interest subsidies on component/material backup-inventory financing.

On 26 December 2025 the President of Kazakhstan signed a law amending the Code "On Subsoil and Subsoil Use" with respect to the hydrocarbon and uranium sectors, followed on 30 December 2025 by a parallel set of amendments implementing presidential instructions on broader subsoil-use governance. Both packages take effect on 2 March 2026. The uranium amendments grant the National Atomic Company Kazatomprom (KAP) a statutory priority right to obtain exploration licences over prospective uranium areas listed in the State Subsoil Fund Management Programme, and to reserve blocks containing uranium mineralisation or deposits. Where uranium mineralisation is discovered on a solid-mineral block held by a third-party subsoil-user, an extension of that licence is conditional on the licensee surrendering the uranium-bearing block to the State; private subsoil-users no longer obtain priority production rights for uranium they discover. The amendments also raise the minimum direct or indirect Kazatomprom interest in any uranium mining project from 50% to 75%, and permit subsequent transfer to investors or joint-venture partners only subject to that 75% floor. The 30 December 2025 package establishes the National Geological Service as a non-privatisable national operator subordinate to the authorised subsoil-exploration agency and as the operator responsible for managing geological information; it also creates a Unified Subsoil Use Platform digital infrastructure (open geological-information database integrated with the Unified State System for Management of the Fuel and Energy Complex). The hydrocarbon track of the law shortens block-reservation periods and pushes unallocated plots into electronic-auction allocation to accelerate competitive exploration. The amendments accompany an announced USD 500m state geological-exploration programme.

On 26 December 2025 the Peruvian executive promulgated and published in El Peruano Ley N° 32537, modifying Decreto Legislativo 1293 to extend the Registro Integral de Formalización Minera (REINFO) — Peru's artisanal-and-small-scale mining formalisation registry — through 31 December 2026, or until the new MAPE Law and its regulations enter into force, whichever occurs first. The statute is the parent instrument above DS 009-2025-EM (May 2025) and pushes the formalisation regime — which previously had a 30 June 2025 sunset under Ley 32213 — out by another 18 months. It also (i) orders a national MAPE census run by INEI, MINEM and INGEMMET (to begin within six months and conclude within twelve), (ii) requires REINFO registrants to declare real operational coordinates within 120 days via the Ventanilla Única de Formalización Minera, (iii) compels regional governments to transfer their formalisation paper and digital archives to MINEM within 60 days, and (iv) directs SUNAFIL to issue payroll-compliance verification rules for REINFO holders within 60 days. The law affects ~80,000+ artisanal and small-scale miners and is the statutory ceiling under which Peru's gold and copper-concentrate export chain operates.

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).

Presidential Decision No. 10767, published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete, Issue No. 33118) on 25 December 2025, re-sets the Digital Services Tax (Dijital Hizmet Vergisi, DHV) rate under Article 5(3) of Law No. 7194. The rate, set at 7.5% since the tax's 2020 introduction, is reduced to 5% for revenue generated from 1 January 2026 and to 2.5% for revenue generated from 1 January 2027. The tax applies to gross Turkish-sourced revenue of digital-service providers (online advertising, content sales, social-media/intermediary platforms) exceeding statutory turnover thresholds, and falls predominantly on large non-resident platform operators (Google, Meta, Amazon and comparable multinationals).

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act (人工智慧基本法) on third reading on 23 December 2025, and President Lai Ching-te promulgated the 20-article statute on 14 January 2026, bringing it into force immediately. The Act designates the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) as the central AI-policy competent authority and codifies seven governance principles — sustainability and well-being, human autonomy, privacy protection and data governance, cybersecurity and safety, transparency and explainability, fairness and non-discrimination, and accountability — that apply to all public-sector AI procurement and high-risk sectoral applications. The statute establishes a statutory foundation for the Taiwan AI Action Plan 2.0, mandates an Executive Yuan National AI Strategy Committee, and provides authority for sector-specific implementing regulations by FSC, NCC, MOHW, and MOTC across finance, telecoms, medical, and autonomous-vehicle AI within a two-year window. As the first national AI governance statute in the Greater China region and the third globally after the EU AI Act and South Korea's AI Basic Act, it frames regulatory expectations for the companies at the heart of the global AI hardware supply chain — TSMC, NVIDIA ODM partners, and advanced-packaging incumbents — that are headquartered or operate substantially in Taiwan.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 75 million loan with AMAG Austria Metall AG on 19 December 2025 (publicly announced 23 February 2026), financing research, development, digitalisation and environmental-sustainability upgrades at AMAG's aluminium plant in Ranshofen, Upper Austria. The credit is the first EIB operation in Austria under its new TechEU programme (accelerating industrial innovation in Europe) and benefits from InvestEU programme backing. It contributes to a wider AMAG investment programme with total projected costs of EUR 168 million over 2025-2028, and the EIB explicitly frames the financing as advancing the EU objective of a sustainable, diversified and stable supply of critical raw materials, including aluminium.

On 15 December 2025, Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, announced Phase 1 of the Canadian Quantum Champions Program (CQCP), awarding CAD 92 million (up to CAD 23 million each) to four domestic quantum-computing developers — Anyon Systems, Nord Quantique, Photonic, and Xanadu Quantum Technologies — to accelerate progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computers with industrial and defence applications. The program is designed to anchor quantum companies, talent and intellectual property inside Canada, moving systems beyond academic prototypes toward real-world testing and practical workloads, and sits within a broader ~CAD 334.3 million, five-year federal quantum-ecosystem commitment tied to Budget 2025 and Canada's National Quantum Strategy.

The French state, through the Agence des participations de l'État (APE), injected EUR 749.3 million into satellite operator Eutelsat's EUR 1.5 billion rights-issue capital increase, completed in two tranches (late November and early December 2025). The investment lifts the French state's stake to 29.65%, making it Eutelsat's largest shareholder. The Ministry of Economy framed the operation as reinforcing "industrial and digital sovereignty," financing Eutelsat's expansion into low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellations and its role in the EU's IRIS² sovereign satellite programme, positioned as a European counterweight to Starlink.

On 11 December 2025 the Council of the EU presidency, the European Parliament, and the European Commission reached provisional political (trilogue) agreement on the revision of Regulation (EU) 2019/452 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union, concluding interinstitutional negotiations on the Commission's proposal of 24 January 2024. The revised regime upgrades the 2019 cooperation-mechanism-only framework into a hybrid harmonised/mandatory regime: all 27 Member States must establish FDI screening mechanisms (replacing the current patchwork in which some Member States have no mechanism at all); mandatory minimum sectoral scope is set EU-wide and covers dual-use items, military equipment, hyper-critical technologies (general-purpose AI with space/defence relevance, quantum technologies, semiconductors), critical raw materials, critical entities in energy/transport/digital infrastructure, electoral infrastructure, and certain financial-system entities; foreign investments routed through EU subsidiaries fall within the perimeter; a shared database prevents Member-State arbitrage; and an optional single electronic-filing portal becomes available if requested by at least nine Member States. Screening decisions remain the exclusive responsibility of the Member State in which the investment is made. Once the Regulation enters into force (after Council and Parliament formal adoption and OJ publication, both pending as of the political-agreement date), the new rules will apply after an 18-month transition period — implementation expected toward the end of 2027.

Vietnam's 15th National Assembly adopted the Law on Investment 2025 (Law No. 143/2025/QH15) at its 10th session on 11 December 2025, effective 1 March 2026. The law replaces the 2020 Law on Investment (Law 61/2020/QH14) as the umbrella FDI framework. Article 19 lets foreign investors establish enterprises in Vietnam without a prior investment project, unlocking holding-company / regional-headquarters structures. A fast-track Special Investment Procedure (SIP) covers industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech parks, concentrated digital-technology zones, free-trade zones, international financial centres and economic-zone functional areas, targeting semiconductor, data-centre and 5G/digital-infrastructure capex. Appendix IV abolishes 38 conditional business sectors and adjusts 20 others (from 1 July 2026 only 199 conditional sectors remain). Operationalised by Decree 96/2026/ND-CP (issued and effective 31 March 2026) and Decree 103/2026/ND-CP for outbound investment.

Innovate UK (part of UKRI) opened the Growth Catalyst - Investor Partnerships Round 2 competition on 10 December 2025, allocating a minimum of £100 million in grant funding to UK-registered SMEs at seed-to-Series-A stage. Grants (60-70% of project costs for feasibility and industrial-research projects; 35-45% for experimental development) must be matched by private investment from an Innovate UK-approved investor partner, ranging from an equal match to double the grant amount depending on project category. Applicants must align with one of the priority sectors named in the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy ("Invest 2035"): advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital and technologies, defence, creative industries, life sciences, or the Battery Innovation Programme. The competition closes 3 February 2026.

On 10 December 2025 the National Assembly of Vietnam adopted Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence (8 chapters, 35 articles), Vietnam's first dedicated AI statutory framework and one of the first comprehensive horizontal AI laws in Southeast Asia. The law establishes a three-tier risk-based regulatory architecture (high / medium / low) for the research, development, provision, deployment, and use of AI systems; defines the rights and obligations of providers, deployers, importers, distributors, and users; and mandates state oversight via the Ministry of Information & Communications and Ministry of Science & Technology. Prohibited acts include systematic deception, manipulation of human perception, generation of fake content endangering national security, exploitation of vulnerable populations, and obstruction of human-supervision mechanisms. The law applies to Vietnamese agencies, organizations, and individuals as well as foreign organizations and individuals involved in AI-related activities in Vietnam, taking effect 1 March 2026 with 12-18 month transition windows for existing systems depending on sector.

Vietnam's National Assembly passed Law on Cybersecurity No. 116/2025/QH15 on 10 December 2025 (434 of 443 deputies in favour), effective 1 July 2026. The law supersedes both the 2018 Cybersecurity Law (Law 24/2018/QH14) and the 2015 Law on Cyber Information Security, consolidating cybersecurity, cyber-information-security, and network-information-security into a unified Ministry of Public Security-led framework. It retains data-localization obligations for foreign digital-service providers handling personal data, user-generated content, and relationship graphs of Vietnamese users (minimum 24-month retention), introduces 6-hour urgent / 24-hour standard content take-down windows on MPS request, expressly prohibits AI/deepfake forgery of images, voices, and videos for illegal purposes, and mandates child-safety platform measures.

On 9 December 2025, the Qatar Investment Authority's newly formed AI subsidiary Qai and Brookfield Asset Management announced a USD 20 billion strategic investment partnership to develop AI infrastructure, including fully integrated compute facilities, in Qatar and select international markets. The venture is a cornerstone of Brookfield's global AI infrastructure program (via the Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, BAIIF), which targets mobilising up to USD 100 billion globally, and is positioned as advancing Qatar National Vision 2030's push to become a Middle East AI-services hub. It is state-backed capital deployment (sovereign wealth fund subsidiary) rather than a regulatory or trade-control measure, and Global Trade Alert classifies it as an unspecified state-aid intervention.

The UK Ministry of Defence announced the Atlantic Bastion programme on 8 December 2025, establishing a hybrid naval force to defend UK and NATO subsea cable and pipeline infrastructure against Russian submarine threats. The programme integrates ships, submarines, aircraft, and autonomous uncrewed vessels through AI-powered acoustic detection and a digital targeting web, with £14 million in combined MOD/industry seedcorn investment already committed, 26 UK and European firms submitting anti-submarine sensor proposals, and capabilities due to be deployed in 2026. Atlantic Bastion implements the Strategic Defence Review 2025 undersea-warfare commitments and is coordinated through the Undersea Infrastructure Security (UIS) Oversight Board chaired by the Cabinet Office.