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

President Trump signed Proclamation 11032 on June 1, 2026 (effective June 8, 2026), making further adjustments to Section 232 tariff regimes for aluminum, steel, and copper. The proclamation expands temporary 15% reduced ad valorem rates to cover agricultural equipment and certain residential HVAC systems previously subject to the 25% derivative tariff, and creates a new Annex I-C establishing temporary S232 rates for mobile industrial equipment and machinery through December 31, 2027. It also designates aluminum lithographic plates and steel racks as new derivative products subject to S232 duties as an anti-circumvention measure. All temporary modifications revert to Proclamation 11021 rates after December 31, 2027.

On 30 March 2026 Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) issued Notice 2026-68, imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on Thai-origin seamless copper tubes and pipes (outer diameter ≤66.68mm, wall thickness 0.20–2.50mm; HSK 7411.10.0000) for a four-month period from 30 March to 29 July 2026. The duty follows a 22 January 2026 preliminary affirmative determination by the Korea Trade Commission (KTC), which found dumping and threat of material injury to domestic producers. Rates are 3.64% for Hong Kong Hailiang Metal Trading Limited and affiliates, 8.41% for Fine Metal Technologies Public Company Limited (Thailand) and affiliates, and 3.64% for all other Thai suppliers. The investigation was initiated 12 September 2025 on a petition by domestic producers Neungwon Metal Industry and LS Metal.

China's Ministry of Finance, NDRC, People's Bank of China and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued Cai Jin [2026] No. 2 on 2026-01-19, optimizing the central-fiscal interest-subsidy policy for equipment-renewal loans. The central government subsidizes 1.5 percentage points of loan principal interest on qualifying fixed-asset loans for equipment-renewal projects, capped at two years, and widens eligible sectors beyond traditional industrial/energy/transport/logistics categories to include construction, AI equipment, aerospace materials, agricultural facilities, cold-chain infrastructure and elderly-care equipment. It also folds bank-originated science-and-technology-innovation loans issued from 2026 (previously supported only via PBOC relending) into the fiscal interest-subsidy scope, and simplifies disbursement via a "pre-disbursement + settlement" mechanism across 26 participating banks. The policy runs through 2026-12-31, extendable.

On 2026-01-15 the People's Bank of China announced a CNY 400 billion increase to its science-and-technology-innovation and equipment-renewal relending facility (科技创新和技术改造再贷款), raising the total quota from CNY 800 billion to CNY 1.2 trillion. The measure supports the optimized implementation of the "two new" (equipment renewal / consumer trade-in) policy programme, and from 2026 extends eligibility to private small and medium-sized enterprises with relatively high R&D spending, which were previously excluded from this relending window.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/20 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 January 2026 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on load cells (GTİP 9031.80.80.90.11, reference price USD 20,000/tonne) and other measuring/checking instruments (GTİP 9031.80.80.90.19, reference price USD 7,000/tonne) whenever the declared customs value falls below those thresholds. Below the floor, import is only permitted with a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General, required by customs at declaration registration and valid for six months.

The US Department of Energy selected the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Holtec Government Services to receive up to $800 million in combined federal cost-shared funding — $400 million each — to accelerate deployment of advanced light-water small modular reactors (SMRs). TVA's award backs a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 unit at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, targeted to be the nation's first commercial SMR (commercial operation targeted early 2030s), with domestic supply-chain partners Scot Forge, North American Forgemasters, BWX Technologies and Aecon. Holtec's award backs deployment of two SMR-300 units at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station site in Covert, Michigan. The program is intended to expand US SMR manufacturing capacity and seed follow-on domestic and export supply chains.

On 25 August 2025, Brazil's federal government launched a combined BRL 12 billion (~USD 2.2bn) subsidised credit line to fund the diffusion of Industry 4.0 machinery and equipment across the Brazilian industrial base. BNDES (national development bank) contributes BRL 10 billion nationwide through its "Crédito Indústria 4.0" line; Finep (research-financing agency) adds BRL 2 billion via its "Difusão Tecnológica" line, reserved for companies in the North, Northeast and Center-West regions to narrow regional investment gaps. Financing covers capital goods incorporating robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, sensing, machine-to-machine communication and IoT, at concessional rates of roughly 7.5-8% plus spread; credit approvals began 15 September 2025. The line operates under the Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) national industrial-policy framework.

Published in the Boletín Oficial on 29 July 2025 and effective the following day, Decreto 513/2025 replaces Annexes I, II, and III of Decreto 557/2023, which govern Argentina's exceptions to the MERCOSUR Common External Tariff (AEC). The decree cuts the extrazone import duty on 27 capital-goods tariff lines — machinery, tools, and industrial equipment previously taxed at 20-35% — to a uniform 12.6%, aiming to lower input costs for domestic manufacturers and encourage technology adoption. Two NCM positions (2934.99.22 and 8450.20.20, covering certain chemical inputs and washing machines) receive a 60-day transitional carve-out preserving the prior tariff treatment for goods already in transit or in customs primary zones at the decree's effective date.

Argentina's Ministry of Economy issued Resolución 938/2025, amending Resolución 256/2000, the import-duty regime for capital goods that constitute large industrial investment projects. The amendment adds electric-energy-generation projects to the regime's eligible activities (previously limited to production lines), cuts the mandatory local-content purchase requirement to 10% of imports' total FOB value, extends the compliance window to one year after project approval, shortens the mandatory asset-holding period to 12 months after startup (or until guarantee release, whichever is first), and pushes the accounting/closeout deadline for pre-Dec-18-2024 pending projects to December 31, 2026. The measure took effect the day after its July 11, 2025 publication in the Boletín Oficial.

Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue gazetted SRO 195-Ain/2025/17/Customs on 29 May 2025, amending an earlier motor-manufacturing SRO (163-Ain/2024) to reduce import duties on additional raw materials and components used in domestic electric motor and electric-motor-parts manufacturing, effective 2 June 2025. The measure lowers input costs for local electric motor producers as part of NBR's ongoing tariff-concession scheme for domestic light-engineering manufacturing.

Jiangsu's provincial Development and Reform Commission and Department of Finance jointly issued a notice on 2025-01-22 expanding the province's 2025 equipment-renewal and consumer trade-in support package under the national "ultra-long-term special treasury bond" program. For qualifying enterprise equipment-renewal bank loans — including transportation, logistics, energy, industrial and agricultural-machinery equipment — Jiangsu's provincial finance department layers an additional 1 percentage point of loan-interest subsidy on top of the 1.5-point central-fiscal subsidy already provided nationally, with a financing-guarantee subsidy covering 80% of guarantee fees (capped at 3 years) for small and micro enterprises accessing renewal loans through the province's "Equipment Guarantee" (设备担) scheme.

The European Commission imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of self-propelled mobile access equipment (MAE — aerial work platforms and similar machinery for lifting persons to heights of 6 metres or more) from China via Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/45 of 8 January 2025, with duties ranging from 20.6% to 54.9% depending on the exporting producer. A companion countervailing-duty (anti-subsidy) regulation, CR (EU) 2025/796 of 24 April 2025, added CVD layers of 7.3%–14.2%, bringing the combined AD+CVD duty range to 20.6%–66.7%. The combined package is the second EU trade-defence-against-China initiative completed in the first half of 2025, following the biodiesel AD case (CR 2025/261), and significantly raises the cost barrier for Chinese MAE producers — principally Sany, Zoomlion, and XCMG — in the EU market.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations to impose a new "Regional Stability – Pakistan" (RS-PAK) licence requirement on exports, reexports, and in-country transfers to Pakistan of items classified under six previously-uncontrolled-for-Pakistan ECCNs: 1B999, 2A992, 2B999 (excluding 2B999.h.2), 3A992, 3A999, and 6A996. The covered items — process-control equipment, high-pressure piping and valves, oscilloscopes, electronic test equipment, magnetometers, and related dual-use industrial gear — are associated with unsafeguarded nuclear and ballistic-missile end-uses. Licence applications are reviewed case-by-case to assess diversion risk to Pakistan's nuclear weapons or ballistic missile programmes, and to entities already on the Entity List or front companies acting on their behalf. Issued as a final rule under ECRA §1762(a) (no notice-and-comment); originally effective 25 November 2024 with the corresponding amendatory instructions, with the substantive licence requirement effective 26 December 2024 (post C1-2024-27648 correction published 29 November 2024).

Bahrain's Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued Decision No. 53 of 2024, amending the conditions governing foreign ownership in commercial activities, effective 18 October 2024. The reform permits 100% foreign ownership of commercial enterprises — including wholesale and retail trade and authorized distribution — without a mandatory Bahraini local partner, where the foreign company operates in at least 10 countries or generates annual revenue above EUR 750 million. It simultaneously reduces the minimum capital requirement for foreign-owned companies in Bahrain by 95%, from BHD 2,000,000 (~EUR 5m) to BHD 100,000 (~EUR 240,000), materially expanding the addressable foreign-investor pool to mid-market commercial enterprises.

On 13 March 2024 the State Council issued the Action Plan on Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In as Guo Fa [2024] No. 7, distributed by NDRC alongside ten implementing ministries. Branded the "Two New" (两新) initiative, it is the flagship Xi/Li-era domestic-demand industrial-policy instrument structured around four action lines (equipment renewal, consumer-goods trade-in, recycling and circular utilisation, standards uplift) with twenty specific tasks and 2027 quantitative targets including ≥25% increase in equipment investment vs 2023 across industry, agriculture, construction, transport, education and healthcare. Funded by CNY 150bn of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024, expanded to CNY 300bn earmarked in 2025, the programme drove >CNY 1.3 trillion of consumer-goods trade-in transactions (autos, appliances, home furnishings, e-bikes) in its first year and is the central pillar of Beijing's response to the property-sector slowdown.

Canada amended the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations via SOR/2022-167, registered and in force 25 June 2022, adding four new schedules targeting Belarus over its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Schedule 3 bans export of advanced technologies (quantum computers, advanced manufacturing and cryogenic equipment); Schedule 4 bans export of luxury goods (Part 1) and import of luxury goods from Belarus (Part 2); Schedule 5 bans export of goods usable in weapons manufacturing, including raw materials such as tungsten, aluminium and titanium, engines, industrial machinery, vehicles, aircraft and maritime vessels. The same instrument added 13 Belarusian officials and 2 state entities to the asset-freeze list.

Canada amended the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations via SOR/2022-102, registered 18 May 2022, adding Schedule 6 (luxury goods) and Schedule 7 (goods usable in weapons production/manufacturing) to the list of items prohibited for export to, and in Schedule 6's case also import from, Russia. Both schedules took effect 60 days after registration (17 July 2022). Schedule 6 covers luxury alcohol, tobacco, textiles, footwear, clothing, jewellery, kitchenware, art, and some machinery; Schedule 7 covers raw materials (including tungsten and aluminium), pumps, vehicle parts, construction equipment, watercraft, and medical/dental/surgical equipment. The regulation also added 14 individuals to the Schedule 1 asset-freeze list.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule expanding license requirements under the EAR for all items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) destined for Russia and Belarus, retroactively effective April 8, 2022. The rule also removes certain license exceptions that previously allowed aircraft-related transactions involving Belarus to proceed without authorization. Issued in direct response to Russia's continued aggression in Ukraine and Belarus's role in enabling it, this measure substantially tightens the multilateral export- control perimeter first established by BIS in late February 2022.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on 8 February 2022 to add 33 persons — all based in China — to the Unverified List (UVL) under EAR §744.15(c), on the basis that BIS could not satisfactorily complete end-use checks for these entities for reasons outside US Government control. Placement on the UVL bars exporters from using any EAR license exception when shipping controlled items to listed parties and requires exporters to obtain a certified UVL Statement from the entity or secure a BIS export licence. Sectors represented include semiconductor manufacturing equipment, optoelectronics, UAVs, specialty chemicals, and biotechnology.