Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

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.

On 26 July 2024 the Thai National Electric Vehicle Policy Committee (EV Board), chaired by Deputy PM Pichai Chunhavajira, approved a dedicated excise-tax incentive package for hybrid-electric-vehicle (HEV, ≤ 10-seat passenger) manufacturing distinct from the BEV-only EV 3.5 regime. Qualifying manufacturers receive a locked excise rate of 6% on HEVs emitting ≤ 100 g CO2/km and 9% on 101-120 g CO2/km vehicles for the 2028-2032 period, conditional on a minimum new investment of THB 3 billion during 2024-2027, BOI approval, mandatory use of key Thai-produced parts, and inclusion of at least four of six listed ADAS safety features. The measure is expected to draw THB 50 billion (~USD 1.4 billion) in additional HEV manufacturing investment and is positioned as the intermediate-emission complement to EV 3.5's BEV-only purchase subsidies and 2% excise rate, extending Thailand's "EV Hub of ASEAN" industrial strategy to capture Japanese OEM hybrid-platform capex (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda) alongside the Chinese-OEM BEV wave already locked in under EV 3.5. The decision required separate Cabinet endorsement and was published via the BOI /EV-Board channel rather than amending the EV 3.5 instrument.