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

India and New Zealand signed their first bilateral Free Trade Agreement on 27 April 2026 in New Delhi. New Zealand grants duty-free access to 100% of Indian exports from day one, while India eliminates tariffs on ~95% of New Zealand exports — covering kiwifruit, apples, meat, wool, coal and forestry products — with core dairy (butter, cheese) carved out and milk albumins receiving a 50% tariff cut under quota. Negotiations launched in March 2025 and were concluded in 9 months. The package includes a NZ commitment to invest USD 20 billion in India over 15-20 years and ~5,000 annual Indian work visas for IT, engineering, healthcare, education, construction, traditional medicine, yoga and culinary professions; bilateral trade is targeted to double to USD 5 billion within five years. The agreement is signed but not yet in force pending ratification.

Argentina's Ministerio de Economía issued Resolución 531/2026 on 20 April 2026, closing the changed-circumstances review under the anti-dumping regime of Resolución 915/2021 and excluding disassembled sports footwear with non-leather soles or uppers (HS 6401.10.00–6405.90.00) imported from China from the existing USD 15.70/pair minimum-FOB-value anti-dumping measure. The Comisión Nacional de Comercio Exterior (CNCE) recommended the exclusion following requests from domestic manufacturers Topper and Puma Sports Argentina, finding that high-performance sports footwear requires components and materials unavailable from domestic suppliers and that assembly operations add approximately 20% local value while supporting employment. The measure operationalises the Milei administration's deregulatory programme via a CNCE-mediated precedent for dismantling legacy protectionist AD measures without formal statutory repeal.

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.

Bangladesh's Ministry of Commerce issued the Import Policy Order 2025-2028 on 29 January 2026 following Council of Advisers approval chaired by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, replacing the prior Import Policy Order 2021-2024 and establishing a modernised three-year import-management framework under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act 1950. The Order permits export-oriented industries — including ready-made garments, leather, footwear, shipbuilding, and furniture — to import essential raw materials at zero duty through the bonded-warehouse mechanism, mandates full e-customs adoption for all duty and tax collection, and introduces risk-based post-clearance audit protocols. It is explicitly designed as the trade-management vehicle for Bangladesh's LDC graduation (effective November 2026), aligning the import regime with WTO non-tariff- barrier obligations and preparing for the loss of GSP/EBA preferences.

On 27 January 2026 the European Union and India announced the conclusion of negotiations on a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement at the EU-India summit hosted at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, attended by PM Narendra Modi, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa. The deal — described by both leaders as the "mother of all deals" — covers ~25% of world GDP and ~2 billion people. The EU eliminates duties on 91% of tariff lines (covering 99.3% of bilateral trade by value); India eliminates duties on 86% of lines (covering 96.6% by value). Headline cuts include Indian tariffs on EU wines (150% → 75% at entry into force, falling to 20%), olive oil (45% → 0% over five years) and processed agri-food (up to 50% eliminated); EU tariffs are reduced/eliminated on Indian textiles, leather/footwear, gems and jewelry, marine products, tea, coffee, spices and certain agricultural and steel products. The agreement still requires Council adoption, European Parliament consent and approval by India's Union Council of Ministers; entry into force is expected in early 2027. Companion instruments concluded at the same summit include an EU-India Security and Defence Partnership and a Mobility and Migration Agreement.

Decree reforming various tariff fractions of the General Import and Export Duties Tariff (TIGIE), published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 29 December 2025 and in force 1 January 2026. The reform, approved by Congress as a statutory amendment to the LIGIE (Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Dec 2025) and signed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, raises MFN import duties to between 5% and 50% ad valorem on 1,463 tariff lines covering more than 20 chapters of the TIGIE, spanning automotive, auto parts, textiles, apparel, footwear, steel, aluminum, plastics, paper, leather, furniture, glass, toys, appliances and cosmetics. The increases apply only to goods originating in countries without a free trade agreement with Mexico — principally China, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, the UAE, and South Africa. The decree formalises at statutory level the September 2024 Sheinbaum executive order placing a 50% duty on finished passenger vehicles from non-FTA states and is framed by the Secretaría de Economía and SHCP as the operational tariff instrument of Plan México (2025-01-21).

On 24 December 2025 the Collegium (Board) of the Eurasian Economic Commission adopted Decision No. 137, splitting five broad EAEU Common Customs Tariff commodity codes (covering magnesium oxide, paints, leather/textile-treatment preparations and SBS block copolymer) into narrower codes limited to leather-footwear-industry end use, and assigning several of the new codes a "109С" zero import-duty rate (versus a standard 5-6.5% MFN rate for the same goods in other end uses) running through 31 December 2028. The Collegium decision was gated to take effect only once the EEC Council's parallel Decision No. 13 (signed 30 January 2026, published 26 February 2026) on the same tariff-nomenclature and chemical-industry line items entered into force; both took effect together on 8 March 2026 across all five EAEU member states (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan).

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2614, adopted 12 December 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 22 December 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2283 and issues a wholesale replacement of the EU's autonomous import tariff-rate quota (ATQ) list, superseding the prior version dated December 2013 and its last update in June 2025. It applies from 1 January 2026 and grants duty-free or reduced-duty access, within fixed volume ceilings, for a broad set of agricultural and industrial inputs including basic organic chemicals, tanning/dyeing extracts, and fertilizer/pesticide inputs not produced in sufficient quantity within the Union. Global Trade Alert logs it as a "Red" (trade-liberalising but discriminatory-in-effect) intervention because the quota volumes are finite even though the duty treatment is erga omnes.

India and the UK signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on 24 July 2025 in Chequers, with Prime Ministers Modi and Starmer presiding. The agreement grants duty-free access on 99% of Indian exports to the UK (textiles, apparel, footwear, auto components, engineering goods and chemicals), and reduces Indian tariffs on UK goods covering ~90% of tariff lines: Scotch whisky duties drop from 150% to 75% on day one and taper to 40% over ten years; high-end UK car tariffs fall from ~110% to 10% under a quota; UK MFN access on a wide industrial-goods envelope. A Double Contribution Convention exempts Indian secondees from UK National Insurance for three years. Bilateral trade currently ~£42 bn / USD 56 bn per year, with the parties targeting doubling by 2030. UK ratification under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) ran from January 2026, with the 21-sitting-day scrutiny period concluding 5 March 2026. Entry into force was delayed from the originally targeted May 2026 date and is now confirmed for July 15, 2026 following a UK Prime Minister announcement at the G7 Évian summit sidelines on June 17, 2026. The confirmed EIF covers 64% of UK exports (£1.9bn) duty-free immediately, with an additional £25.5bn/year in projected additional bilateral trade.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/778 of 14 April 2025, adopted under Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 (the EU enforcement regulation for international trade rights), reinstates the EU's 2018 and 2020 commercial rebalancing measures against the United States and adds new countermeasures in response to the second Trump administration's 10 February 2025 Section 232 proclamations, which restored a universal 25% tariff on steel imports and raised the aluminium tariff to 25% effective 12 March 2025 (filed as 2025-02-11-us-section-232-steel-aluminum-global-tariff-reinstatement). The combined package targets approximately €26 billion of EU imports from the United States — matching the scope of US measures affecting EU exports — and combines the reinstatement of pre-existing duties on a first tranche of products (steel, aluminium, agricultural goods, motorcycles, and other industrial items originally subject to the 2018 and 2020 lists) with new duties on roughly €18 billion of additional US-origin goods spanning poultry, beef, certain seafood, nuts, eggs, dairy, sugar and vegetables on the agricultural side, and steel, aluminium, textiles, leather, appliances, plastics and wood products on the industrial side. Tariff rates layer onto MFN duties at up to 50% for some products, mirroring the structure of the 2018 measures. On the same day the Commission published Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/786, which suspends application of Articles 2 and 3 of 2025/778 for 90 days, until 14 July 2025, to allow space for bilateral negotiations following the US 9 April 2025 announcement of a 90-day pause on its own reciprocal-tariff regime (2025-04-02-us-trump-reciprocal-tariff-regime). The legal scaffolding therefore exists and is in force, but no duties were collected during the suspension window. This is the first standalone EU rebalancing instrument adopted against the United States in the second Trump administration and the first major use of Reg 654/2014 since the 2018-2020 Section 232 episode.

On 21 March 2024, President William Ruto formally launched Kenya's Fourth Medium Term Plan 2023-2027 (MTP IV) at State House Nairobi, the final five-year implementation plan under the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint. MTP IV is the operational vehicle for the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), the Ruto administration's foundational industrial-policy and value-chain framework. The plan organises Kenya's industrial-policy push around five core BETA pillars and nine value chains: agro-processing (incl. edible-oil crops, leather, dairy, tea), textiles and apparel, housing and settlement, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, digital superhighway and creative economy, manufacturing (incl. automotive and EV motorcycle and vehicle assembly), MSME and cooperative sector strengthening, and blue-economy/natural-resource value addition. Implementation is anchored in County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) across all 47 counties and in the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs). MTP IV is the umbrella framework shaping Kenya's domestic industrial-incentive architecture, foreign-investment priorities, and AfCFTA positioning over 2023-2027. Subsequent sectoral instruments — including the Mining Royalty Collection and Management Regulations 2024 — operate within this policy perimeter. This is the first KE foundational industrial-policy filing in the register.

Three-year export-promotion policy issued by the Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce on 25 February 2024 covering FY2024-25 through FY2026-27. Sets a $110bn merchandise+services export target by FY2026-27 (vs. ~$56bn FY2023-24 base), restructures the cash-incentive regime, and designates "highest priority" and "special development" sectors including ready-made garments, leather, jute, ICT, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, light engineering, and plastics. Explicitly designed as the transition framework for navigating Bangladesh's LDC graduation (effective 24 November 2026), at which point the country will lose EU Everything-But-Arms duty-free access and face an estimated 10% average MFN tariff on EU exports.

Bangladesh's Cabinet approved the National Industrial Policy 2022 on 11 August 2022, replacing the National Industrial Policy 2016 as the country's foundational umbrella industrial-policy statute; the Ministry of Industries gazetted it on 29 September 2022. The policy sets a target to raise industry's share of GDP to 40% by 2027 and introduces a sector taxonomy covering export-diversification, special-development (electronics, automotive assembly, semiconductors, renewable energy, defence-electronics), priority, reserved, and controlled categories. CMSMEs (Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) are designated the "main driving force of industrialisation," with sector-specific concessional finance, tax holidays, and cluster-development frameworks, alongside FDI incentives including Bangladeshi citizenship for investors committing USD 1 million. The policy for the first time formally incorporates Bangladesh's informal sector within a national industrial-policy framework, mandating a National Informal Sector Database and a 2022–2027 implementation action plan.

The Bureau of Industry and Security created Supplement No. 5 to 15 CFR Part 746, establishing a new licensing requirement for the export, reexport, or in-country transfer of luxury goods to Russia, Belarus, and to Russian or Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors anywhere in the world, effective 11 March 2022. Covered goods span over 570 HTS-6 line items across categories including spirits and tobacco (above de minimis thresholds), clothing and leather goods (>$1,000 per item), jewelry and precious gemstones, watches (>$100), vehicles (>$25,000), seafood/caviar (>$100), art and antiques, and recreational vessels. The rule targets both bulk commercial exports to Russia and Belarus and personal luxury procurement by designated oligarchs worldwide, with a policy of denial for all such licence applications.