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

At its 30 December 2025 regular session, Iraq's Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 40% additional duty on medical and industrial oxygen (gaseous and liquid forms), in effect for four years, and a 30% additional duty on imported yogurt (laban rayeb) and liquid milk. Both measures were framed as protecting domestic pharmaceutical/ industrial-gas production and local dairy manufacturing respectively, and take effect 120 days after issuance (29 April 2026) to give importers an adjustment window. Global Trade Alert logs the dairy duty as principally affecting Germany, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye as leading supplier origins, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

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.

Arrêté ministériel n° 00964/CAB.MIN/MINES/01/2025, signed 19 December 2025 by DRC Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba, suspends with immediate effect all activities of entities (notably comptoirs d'achat / buying counters, treatment units and similar structures) involved in the purchase, processing, transformation and commercialisation of copper and cobalt minerals sourced from artisanal exploitation across the country. Industrial, legally established mining operators are excluded. The order requires affected entities to submit compliance documentation within ten days, establishes an ad hoc commission to verify administrative, legal, technical and traceability conformity (15-day review window), and obliges operators to demonstrate the lawful origin of their supplies in line with OECD due-diligence guidance. Framed as a "conservatory" measure to restore order in the cupro-cobaltifère value chain and curb illicit exports.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 100 million multi-beneficiary intermediated loan with Piraeus Bank SA on 18 December 2025 under the "Piraeus Bank L4SMEs Security & Defence" project (EIB ref. 20250612, approved 12 November 2025). At least 50% of the on-lent amount must go to SMEs and mid-caps active in Greece's security and defence sector, addressing constrained access to finance these firms face due to sector-specific sensitivities and dual-use classification. The EIB describes it as its first-ever financing in Greece dedicated to the security and defence sector, part of a wider Pan-EU Security & Defence Lending Envelope; Global Trade Alert separately logged the transaction (reporting the headline amount as EUR 200 million) as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 50/2025-26 on 18 December 2025 (Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3(ii)), inserting a new Policy Condition No. 08 under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy). Imports of diluted Potassium Clavulanate below a CIF value of USD 77/kg, Potassium Clavulanate (KGA) below USD 180/kg, and specified clavulanic-acid-manufacture intermediates below USD 92/kg are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 November 2026. It is aimed at countering low-priced Chinese potassium-clavulanate exports and protecting Indian bulk-drug fermentation capacity (Aurobindo Pharma and other domestic API makers) amid a global potassium-clavulanate supply glut.

HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published a Russia-regime notice on 18 December 2025 designating five individuals and 19 entities under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. Of the 19 entities, six are based in Russia, eight in the United Arab Emirates, four in Uzbekistan and one in Kyrgyzstan — reflecting OFSI's continued focus on third-country intermediaries used to route sanctioned Russian trade and finance. Designated persons are subject to a full asset freeze and are barred from commercial transactions and investment instruments with UK persons.

On 16 December 2025, Public Services and Procurement Canada implemented the Buy Canadian Procurement Policy Framework, bringing into force (a) the Policy on Prioritizing Canadian Materials in Federal Procurement, which mandates use of Canadian steel, wood products and aluminum in federal defence and construction contracts valued at CAD 25 million or more that contain at least CAD 250,000 of those materials where Canadian supply exists, and (b) the Policy on Prioritizing Canadian Suppliers and Canadian Content in Strategic Federal Procurements, which applies a bid-price discount margin favouring Canadian suppliers in procurements tied to Canada's economic, industrial and innovation priorities. Complementary amendments to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Procurement Inquiry Regulations, effective 15 December 2025, remove CITT jurisdiction to review procurement measures that restrict participation to, or favour, Canadian suppliers, goods, services, materials or subcontractors. The framework applies immediately to procurements of CAD 25 million and above and is scheduled to expand to contracts of CAD 5 million and above by spring 2026. Budget 2025 allocates roughly CAD 186 million over five years to implement the framework, including CAD 79.9 million for a new Small and Medium Business Procurement Program.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 200 million multi-beneficiary intermediated loan (guarantee) with IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG on 15 December 2025, under the "IKB Loan for Midcaps MBIL" operation. The facility backs a total lending volume of roughly EUR 400 million to German mid-sized and large corporates, with a 30% Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability window earmarked for renewable energy (primarily solar PV and onshore wind) and energy-efficiency investments in industry. Per the EIB project record, the signed allocation splits EUR 48.6 million to energy, EUR 11.4 million to industry/construction, and EUR 140 million to general credit lines. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

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.

The UK government designated Russian media entity Rybar LLC and its director-general Mikhail Zvinchuk, alongside Aleksandr Dugin, the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond), and affiliated entities Euromore, Golos, and the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The designations impose asset freezes and bans on commercial transactions and investment instruments with the named parties, on the basis that Rybar runs a foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) network promoting Russian state interests and destabilising Ukraine. Pravfond's network was separately alleged to have moved funds across at least 11 EU member states to fund pro-Kremlin media outlets while concealing state ties.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated four individuals and four entities under Executive Order 14098 ("Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons Destabilizing Sudan and Undermining the Goal of a Democratic Transition") for operating a transnational network that recruits former Colombian military personnel to fight for Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary. Designated persons include retired Colombian officer Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra, his wife Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, the Colombia-based recruitment agency International Services Agency (A4SI), and Panama-based intermediary Talent Bridge, S.A. (formerly Global Staffing S.A.). All property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from transacting with them.

On 3 December 2025 President Pedro Sánchez presented the Plan España Auto 2030, a five-year roadmap to mobilise EUR 30 bn (public + private) through 2030 to anchor electric-vehicle, battery and charging- infrastructure manufacturing in Spain. The plan is the first comprehensive Spanish auto-industrial policy of the post-COVID era and is structured as three immediate 2026 envelopes plus a multi-year PERTE-track: (i) Plan Auto+ — EUR 400 m in direct consumer-purchase subsidies effective 1 January 2026, replacing the autonomous-region- managed MOVES III with a centralised dealer-discount model run by MINCOTUR; (ii) MOVES Corredores — EUR 300 m for fast-charging-corridor deployment; and (iii) an additional EUR 580 m allocated to the PERTE VEC (Vehículo Eléctrico y Conectado) industrial-finance instrument in 2026, on top of the EUR ~3 bn already mobilised across previous PERTE VEC calls. The headline ambition is a sub-EUR 25,000 "affordable Spanish electric car" and 95% electrified light-vehicle production by 2035.

On 26 November 2025, Scotland's Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, Kate Forbes MSP, wrote to the Scottish Parliament's Economy and Fair Work Committee confirming that the preferred bidder for Glasgow Prestwick Airport had withdrawn from the sale process after a "robust commercial deal" had been negotiated. The letter discloses that the proposed acquisition was subject to mandatory notification to the UK Government under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, a reserved matter on which Scottish Ministers cannot comment. Media reporting (Global Trade Alert; Daily Business) identifies the withdrawn bidder as Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding and attributes the collapse directly to the UK national-security review process ("Westminster officials opening an investigation"). The airport, which employs over 500 people directly and anchors an Ayrshire aerospace cluster, remains in Scottish Government public ownership.

On 24 November 2025, six Beijing municipal departments — the Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, Development and Reform Commission, Science and Technology Commission, Health Commission, Drug Administration and Medical Insurance Bureau — jointly issued Notice 京经信发〔2025〕50号 ("Several Measures to Promote High-Quality Development of the Beijing Medical Device Industry"), effective immediately through 31 December 2028. The 15-measure package subsidises the full medical-device value chain: early-stage innovation (up to RMB 1m per project), product approval/launch (up to RMB 2m per product, RMB 10m annual enterprise cap), industrial-park and public-service infrastructure construction (up to 50% of investment, capped at RMB 50m), supply-chain-resilience R&D for critical components/materials (up to 30% of investment, capped at RMB 30m), AI-diagnostic-model development (up to RMB 30m), smart-factory digitalisation (up to 30% of investment, capped at RMB 30m per project), and international regulatory approval/market entry (up to RMB 1m per product, RMB 3m annual cap; up to RMB 10m for introducing overseas products to China).

The Chongqing Municipal Government General Office issued Notice 渝府办发〔2025〕58号 on 2025-11-22, promulgating "Several Policy Measures to Promote High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy," effective immediately through 2027-12-31. The package comprises eight capped-percentage subsidy tracks covering low-altitude public-service procurement, logistics route operating subsidies (up to RMB 150,000 per route), demonstration projects (up to RMB 20 million), test-flight infrastructure (20% of investment, capped at RMB 5 million), manufacturing R&D and first-of-kind equipment support (up to 30% of receipts, capped at RMB 5 million), national innovation/manufacturing centres (up to RMB 20 million), ground-station infrastructure (20% of investment, capped at RMB 10 million), private-equity fund-manager incentives (1% of invested capital, capped at RMB 10 million cumulative), and AI-compute subsidies (20% of service cost, up to RMB 1 million/year). Global Trade Alert classifies all eight interventions as state aid with a "certainly harmful" (Red) rating.

The Beijing Tongzhou District People's Government issued Notice 通政发〔2025〕9号 on 20 November 2025 ("Several Measures for Accelerating High-Quality Industrial Development in Beijing City's Sub-Center (Revised)"), effective immediately and superseding the prior-year version (通政发〔2024〕8号). The package subsidises industrial incubation platforms, R&D and university-enterprise innovation collaboration, revitalisation of existing factory space, smart-manufacturing/"lighthouse factory" digital transformation, national/provincial lab recognition, and private-equity fund management, alongside talent, green-finance and application-scenario testing support. Global Trade Alert logged the underlying state act (95773) as seven separate "state aid, unspecified" interventions.

On 19 November 2025, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in a coordinated action with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, designated 5 individuals and 7 companies linked to two Russia-based "bulletproof hosting" (BPH) providers, Media Land and Aeza Group, under Executive Order 13694. Media Land and its subsidiaries (Media Land Technology, Data Center Kirishi, ML Cloud) supplied server infrastructure to ransomware groups including LockBit, BlackSuit and Play. The designations also targeted three companies Aeza Group used to evade its July 2025 OFAC designation and rebrand its infrastructure: Hypercore Ltd. (United Kingdom), Smart Digital Ideas DOO (Serbia), and Datavice MCHJ (Uzbekistan). All designated persons' U.S.-nexus assets are blocked and U.S. persons are prohibited from transacting with them.

On 18 November 2025, the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA, and EIOPA) jointly designated 19 Critical ICT Third-Party Providers (CTPPs) under DORA Article 31, with immediate effect — the first-ever exercise of direct EU financial-regulator supervision over hyperscale cloud and infrastructure providers. The designated entities include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Deutsche Telekom, Oracle, SAP, IBM, Bloomberg LP, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Tata Consultancy Services, and Orange, among others. Designation triggers direct oversight by a lead ESA (EBA for banking-critical, ESMA for capital-markets-critical, EIOPA for insurance-critical) via Joint Examination Teams (JETs), with powers to conduct investigations, carry out on-site inspections, and impose fines of up to 1% of average daily worldwide turnover per day for non-compliance.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs International Trade Administration (MOEA-ITA) issued a pre-notice (17 November 2025, doc. 經授貿字第 11450120760號) proposing amendments to the "Dual-Use Goods and Technology Export Control List" and the "General Military Goods List" under the Strategic High-Tech Commodities (SHTC) regime, adding or reclassifying items in the basic-inorganic-chemicals, chemical-products, and engines/turbines categories to align with Wassenaar Arrangement list updates. Following the standard 60-day public-comment period, MOEA-ITA published the finalised amendment on 11 February 2026 (doc. 經貿字第 11550200140號), effective immediately, requiring exporters of the newly listed dual-use and military goods to obtain prior export licences regardless of destination.

Cyprus Law 194(I)/2025 "The Establishment of a Framework for the Screening of Foreign Direct Investments Law of 2025" was enacted by the House of Representatives and published in the Official Gazette on 14 November 2025, entering into force on 2 April 2026. It establishes Cyprus's first-ever mandatory pre-approval FDI screening regime, designating the Ministry of Finance as the competent Screening Authority and applying to non-EU/EEA/Swiss investors acquiring ≥25% equity or voting rights in Cyprus entities valued at ≥€2 million across covered strategic sectors. The regime implements EU Regulation 2019/452 and includes a Cyprus-specific sectoral extension covering tourism and real estate — addressing golden-passport-era concerns about non-EU capital flows into the island's financial and hospitality economy.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA, also known as Yizhuang) Management Committee issued Notice 京技管发〔2025〕25号 ("Several Measures to Accelerate the High-Quality Development of Industrial Finance"), effective 11 November 2025 through 31 December 2028. It renews and supersedes the prior version (京技管发〔2024〕33号, issued 24 December 2024) of the same "industrial finance 20 measures" (产业金融二十条) program. The package subsidises the district's finance-for-industry ecosystem: newly licensed financial institutions receive capital-scaled grants (e.g. RMB 5 million + 1% of paid-in capital for institutions with RMB 100-300 million in capital, rising in tiers to a cap of RMB 60 million for larger institutions); branch-office openings receive RMB 2-4 million one-off grants; venture-capital fund managers receive rewards of 2-4% of capital deployed (capped at RMB 500,000/project); leasing and factoring firms with RMB 500 million+ capital receive 0.5% landing bonuses (capped at RMB 25 million); and tech-credit "risk compensation funds" reimburse partner banks for small/micro-enterprise loan losses. State media reporting on the program's prior iteration cited a maximum single-policy-item award of RMB 80 million. Global Trade Alert logged the underlying state act (95362) as a single "state aid, unspecified" intervention (150867).

The Hrvatski sabor (Croatian Parliament) unanimously adopted the Act on Screening of Foreign Direct Investments on 24 October 2025; the law was published in Narodne Novine 136/2025 and entered into force on 13 November 2025. It establishes Croatia's first-ever statutory horizontal FDI-screening regime, implementing EU Regulation 2019/452 in Croatian law. The Act captures direct or indirect acquisitions by non-EU investors of at least 10 % of share capital, voting rights or property rights in Croatian entities operating in sensitive sectors (defence, dual-use, critical infrastructure, critical minerals, emerging tech, sensitive personal data, energy, transport, health, digital infrastructure, media, financial services). The reviewing authority must decide within 120 days, exceptionally 150 days, of a complete application. Croatia was one of the last EU Member States without a horizontal screening law.

China's Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs and State Taxation Administration jointly issued Announcement 2025 No. 10, restructuring VAT refund support across the power-generation sector effective 1 November 2025. Offshore wind power producers gain a new 50% immediate VAT refund running through 31 December 2027, while the prior immediate-refund policy for onshore wind power (in force since 2015 under Cai Shui [2015] No. 74) is repealed outright. Nuclear plants approved but not yet commercially operating as of 31 October 2025 receive a 50% collected-then-refunded VAT rebate for ten years from first commercial operation, but nuclear projects approved after 1 November 2025 receive no VAT refund at all. The measure reallocates state fiscal support within China's power sector toward offshore wind and legacy-pipeline nuclear capacity while withdrawing it from onshore wind and future nuclear approvals.

On 15 October 2025 the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) launched a CAD 700 million loan guarantee program to help softwood sawmills, lumbermills and remanufacturers access new term loans and letters of credit through their existing financial institutions. The guarantees are aimed at easing the collateral and duty-payment strain created by US tariff and countervailing/antidumping exposure, effective immediately from announcement. The program was later topped up by a further CAD 500 million on 26 November 2025 (filed separately), bringing total guarantee capacity to roughly CAD 1.2 billion.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 41/2025-26 on 10 October 2025, inserting a new import policy condition under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy) for Sulfadiazine API (ITC-HS codes 29359013 and 29359090). Imports with a declared CIF value below Rs. 1,774 per kilogram are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 September 2026, aimed at curbing low-priced imports — Global Trade Alert records China, France and Israel among the affected exporters — while protecting domestic API manufacturers.

Singapore issued a package of four companion instruments in 2025 to modernise its strategic-goods control architecture: (i) the Strategic Goods (Control) Order 2025 (SGCO 2025), which revokes and replaces SGCO 2024 (S 641/2024) and expands the Singapore Strategic Goods Control List to align with the 2024 Wassenaar Arrangement Munitions List and 2024 EU List of Dual-Use Items, effective 1 December 2025; (ii) the Strategic Goods (Control) (Brokering) (Amendment) Order 2025 (S 662/2025), published 1 October 2025, updating Singapore's extraterritorial brokering regime for controlled goods; (iii) Singapore Customs Circular 01/2025 of 8 April 2025, amending import/export declaration requirements to mandate disclosure of the final destination country of goods rather than the consignee address on the commercial invoice; and (iv) a 4 April 2025 joint MTI–Singapore Customs advisory explicitly warning Singapore-based businesses and intermediaries that their compliance obligations extend beyond Singapore's own controls — i.e., that Singapore authorities will not condone deliberate circumvention or violation of US, EU, or Japanese export controls by Singapore-domiciled intermediaries. This package constitutes the first Singapore export-control-architecture filing in the IPTM register and is directly framed by the February 2025 Singapore–NVIDIA–Inspur–DeepSeek GPU-diversion case in which three Singapore residents were charged for fraudulent re-export of restricted AI accelerators to PRC end-users.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 400 million (USD 469 million) intermediated framework loan with Norddeutsche Landesbank (NordLB) on 30 September 2025, under the "NordLB Renewable Energy 2" operation. NordLB on-lends the EIB funds at long-term, below-market financing conditions to eligible renewable-energy projects — mainly photovoltaic, onshore wind and battery storage — located predominantly in Germany and other EU countries, with the intermediated structure designed to extend financing to smaller projects that would not otherwise access direct EIB funding. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-loan intervention.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 51 of 2025 on 25 September 2025, adding three US entities — Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HII, the largest US military shipbuilder), Planate Management Group, and Global Dimensions LLC — to China's Export Control List (出口管制 管控名单), effective the same day. The listing prohibits Chinese exporters from supplying dual-use items to the three firms and requires any ongoing related export activity to cease immediately. MOFCOM cited the firms' "military-technical cooperation with China's Taiwan region" as the trigger, issued in parallel with a same-day Unreliable Entity List designation of three other US firms (Saronic Technologies, Aerkomm, Oceaneering International).

President Trump signed Executive Order "Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security" on September 25, 2025, certifying a restructuring plan as a "qualified divestiture" under the 2024 PAFACA law and directing the Attorney General not to enforce the Act for 120 days while the transaction closes. The plan creates TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, valued at roughly $14 billion, with a new US-investor consortium (Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX at 15% each, plus other investors, totaling 50%), affiliates of existing ByteDance investors holding 30.1%, and ByteDance itself retaining 19.9%. Oracle will run US data storage and algorithm retraining/oversight; the deal closed January 22, 2026.

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 30/2025-26 on 18 September 2025, inserting a new import policy condition under Chapter 29 of ITC (HS) 2022, Schedule-I (Import Policy) for ATS-8 — (4R-Cis)-1,1-Dimethylethyl-6- cyanomethyl-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4-acetate (HS 2932.99), the key synthesis intermediate for Atorvastatin, a National List of Essential Medicines cholesterol-lowering statin API. Imports with a declared CIF value below USD 111/kg are reclassified from "Free" to "Restricted," requiring a DGFT import authorisation before Customs clearance. The measure took immediate effect and runs until 30 September 2026. Global Trade Alert records China, Argentina and Canada among the affected exporters; global merchant-market ATS-8 supply is concentrated among Chinese producers.

Tanzania's Minister for Minerals issued the Mining (Local Content) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025 via Government Notice No. 563 of 2025, published on 12 September 2025 and in force on the same day with no grace period. The amendment overhauls the Mining (Local Content) Regulations, 2018 (GN No. 3 of 2018) and introduces a new Regulation 13A empowering the Tanzania Mining Commission to publish — in the Gazette, on its website, and in nationwide media — a list of "reserved" goods and services that may be supplied only by an Indigenous Tanzanian Company (ITC) that is 100% Tanzanian-owned (no joint venture permitted in those reserved categories). For non-reserved categories, non- indigenous suppliers must form a JV with an ITC operating in the same line of business in which the ITC holds at least 20% equity, with the JV agreement subject to prior Mining Commission approval. Sole-sourced contracts above ~USD 10,000 must be notified to the Commission, and Local Content Plans must now include Banking Services and Procurement sub-plans, channelling mining-related financial transactions through Tanzanian-registered banks.

On 12 September 2025 the UK government, acting under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, designated 3 individuals and 27 entities — 19 Russian, plus third-country intermediaries in Thailand (3), Hong Kong (3), India (1) and Türkiye (1) accused of supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used in Russian missile and weapons production — and proscribed 70 vessels (oil tankers and cargo ships, identified by IMO number) linked to Russia's shadow fleet evading the G7 crude price cap. The package brings the UK's cumulative tanker designations to nearly 500, more than any other single jurisdiction.

On 3 September 2025, OFAC announced a civil penalty settlement with Fracht FWO Inc. — a Houston, Texas-based freight forwarder and US subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered Fracht AG — under which the company agreed to pay USD 1,610,775 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of multiple OFAC sanctions programs. The violations arose from Fracht FWO's brokering of cargo shipments involving EMTRASUR, a wholly owned subsidiary of OFAC-designated Venezuelan state airline CONVIASA, on a Mexico-to-Argentina route on which Iranian crew members were subsequently discovered. Fracht self-initiated a voluntary disclosure to OFAC after learning of the Iranian crew involvement, triggering mitigating credit, and undertook extensive remedial compliance measures. The settlement resolves apparent violations of the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations (VSR), Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (WMDPSR), Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (GTSR), and Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).

On 16 August 2025, Ukraine's President signed Decree No. 599/2025, enacting an NSDC decision "On the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)" against 39 individuals and 55 legal entities identified as involved in developing, manufacturing, or supplying components for Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with artificial-intelligence elements. The list covers 43 Russian entities (including drone makers Prognatik, Rozumni Ptakhy, Zala Aero, and KB Vostok, plus AI research centres Neurolab and TsBST), 10 Chinese suppliers of navigation receivers, engines, cameras, and microchips (including Dongguan Standard Trading, Zhejiang Lianxing Machinery, Shenzhen Sky Bow Navigation Technology, and Topscom Precision Industry), and 2 Belarusian component suppliers. Sanctions impose asset freezes and restrictions on commercial transactions and investment instruments, entered into force immediately upon signature and revocable no later than 15 August 2035.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone (BDA) Management Committee issued Jingjiguanfa [2025] No. 17, "Several Measures on Promoting the Innovative Development of Embodied Intelligent Robots in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone," on 2025-08-12, effective immediately and in force through 2028-08-31. The package subsidizes joint-lab R&D (up to 20% of project investment, capped at RMB 5,000,000 per lab), dataset development (up to RMB 2,000,000 per enterprise), an annual RMB 100,000,000 "data voucher" pool (10% purchase subsidy, capped at RMB 1,000,000 per entity), a robot development community grant (up to RMB 30,000,000 annually), application-scenario subsidies (20-30% of cost, capped at RMB 5,000,000 per project), and a humanoid-robot sales rebate (10% of revenue, capped at 1,000 units / RMB 10,000,000 annually per company). The zone targets ten-thousand-unit annual production capacity and 100+ embodied-AI enterprises by end-2027.

The Anhui Provincial People's Government issued Wanzhengmi [2025] No. 108 (皖政秘〔2025〕108号), "Several Policies (Version 2.0) for Building a General Artificial Intelligence Industrial Innovation and Application Highland," on 2025-08-11, effective immediately and running through 2027-12-31. The package replaces and expands an October 2023 predecessor version, bundling grants, project subsidies and application-scenario support to accelerate large-model and general-AI adoption across the province's industrial base. The first 2025 disbursement batch under the scheme funded 30 of 34 submitted projects for a combined RMB 49.5831 million (approx. USD 6.9 million).

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 24/2025-26 (S.O. 3657(E)) on 11 August 2025, with immediate effect, adding four jute and textile-bast-fibre HS lines — woven jute fabrics (531090), jute twine/cordage/rope (560790, 560890), and jute sacks and bags (630510) — to the list of Bangladesh-origin goods barred from land-port entry into India. Consignments in these categories may now enter only via Nhava Sheva Seaport (Maharashtra); the notification leaves the terms of the prior Notification No. 21/2025-26 (27 June 2025) otherwise unchanged. It is the third in a widening 2025 sequence of DGFT port-routing restrictions on Bangladeshi goods, following Notification No. 07/2025-26 (17 May 2025, targeting RMG and other consumer goods) and Notification No. 21/2025-26.

At its 32nd regular session on 10 August 2025, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 75% additional duty on the unit measure of imported paper napkins/tissues, and a 30% additional duty on the unit measure of white polystyrene plates and food-storage containers. Both duties run for four years without reduction, with domestic-market monitoring during the application period, and took effect 120 days after issuance (10 December 2025). Global Trade Alert logs China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye as the principal supplier origins affected, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

The Henan Provincial People's Government issued "Several Policy Measures to Support Enterprise Science and Technology Innovation" (河南省支持企业 科技创新若干政策措施) on 2025-08-08, effective immediately. The package runs a province-wide "unveil-and-lead" (揭榜挂帅) mechanism publishing 100+ key-technology tender projects per year, targeting 200+ core-technology breakthroughs across priority industrial chains, with per-project support of no less than RMB 10 million. It also commits to RMB 160 billion (approx. USD 22 billion) in new 2025 lending to technology enterprises via the province's manufacturing mid/long-term loan pipeline mechanism.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated five entities and one individual based in Iran, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China for procuring CNC (computer numerical control) machine tools on behalf of Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), the state-owned defense-ministry subsidiary that builds Iran's Ababil-series military UAVs used by the IRGC. Designated parties include Javad Alizadeh Hoshyar, CEO of Iran-based Control Afzar Tabriz Co Ltd, which used Hong Kong-based Clifton Trading Limited as an intermediary to obscure CNC-machine shipments to HESA, and Taiwan-based Mecatron Machinery Co Ltd and Joemars Machinery and Electric Industrial Co Ltd, which shipped CNC machines toward Iran through similar concealment channels. The action was taken pursuant to National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), which directs that Iran be denied conventional and asymmetric weapons capabilities. All designated parties' US property and interests are blocked and US persons are generally barred from transacting with them.

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.

At its regular session on 22 July 2025, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved an additional 40% customs duty (on the unit measure of the imported product) on tile and ceramic adhesive materials imported from all countries of origin, running for four years without reduction and taking effect 120 days after issuance (20 November 2025). The same session eliminated import license requirements for motor oils/lubricants of all types and for used vehicle spare parts at all federal border crossings, conditional on compliance with national quality standards (oils) and radiation-clearance certification (used spare parts). Global Trade Alert separately logs China, Austria and Czechia as principal affected trade partners for the duty measure, though it applies on a non-discriminatory, all-origins basis. This is one of a recurring series of Iraqi cabinet tariff-schedule actions in 2025-26 driven by state revenue pressure (see the Iraq fiscal-tariff-reform theme for the wider cluster).

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) jointly issued Announcement No. 28 of 2025 on 15 July 2025, partially adjusting the "Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export" first published under Announcement No. 57 of 2023. The revision adds new restricted-export entries covering LFP/LMFP cathode electrode material preparation technology, lithium carbonate/lithium hydroxide preparation technology, and gallium processing technology, extending Beijing's export-control perimeter from raw critical minerals into upstream battery-material process technology. The same revision removed three unrelated entries (traditional Chinese architectural technology and building environment-control technology) from the prohibited/restricted lists. The catalogue took effect immediately upon publication and followed a January 2025 public-consultation draft.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone (BDA / Yizhuang) Management Committee issued Jingjiguanfa [2025] No. 15, "Several Measures on Promoting Quantum Technology and Industry Development in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone," on 2025-07-14, effective immediately and in force through 2027-12-31. The package spans ten support lines covering the full quantum stack (computing hardware/software, communications, sensing): up to RMB 2,000,000 one-off support for disruptive early-stage R&D projects, R&D-investment matching at 20% of an enterprise's prior-year R&D spend capped at RMB 5,000,000, 1:1 matching up to RMB 30,000,000 for enterprises undertaking state/municipal quantum research tasks, RMB 500,000 per product for new-technology/product certifications, up to RMB 100,000 per flagship application-demonstration project, up to RMB 30,000,000/year (three years max) for quantum-computing cloud platforms and compute centers, up to RMB 5,000,000/year (three years max) for operating industry-ecosystem platforms, rent subsidies up to RMB 1.5/sqm/day (max 2,000 sqm, three years), and talent, financing ("patient capital"/future-industry guidance fund), and international- cooperation support. The zone targets an internationally influential quantum industry cluster by 2027.

The Assembly of Albania (Kuvendi i Republikës së Shqipërisë) adopted Law No. 56/2025 on 11 July 2025, published in Fletorja Zyrtare (Official Gazette) No. 124 of the same date, amending Article 10 of Law No. 7764/1993 "On Foreign Investments" to introduce Albania's first-ever mandatory FDI screening mechanism. The law requires investors to submit applications for screening of any foreign investment "related to or affecting critical public infrastructure, critical technologies, dual-use goods, supply of critical inputs, access to sensitive information, or media freedom" — categories aligned with EU Regulation 2019/452 — while delegating thresholds, timelines, and procedural safeguards to a forthcoming Decision of the Council of Ministers (DCM). Albania becomes the first country in the Western Balkans to establish an investment-screening regime aligned with EU Regulation 2019/452, opening a new issuer-country code (AL) on the IPTM register and anchoring a regional cluster that currently stands at RS=1, MK=0, BA=0, ME=0, XK=0.

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 35 of 2025 on 9 July 2025, adding 8 Taiwan-based entities to its Dual-Use Items Export Control List under the Export Control Law and the Regulations on Export Control of Dual-Use Items. The listed firms — spanning aerospace/aviation, unmanned systems, and shipbuilding — are barred from receiving dual-use item exports from China; ongoing export activity to them must cease immediately, with exceptions only via case-by-case MOFCOM approval. The measure took effect the same day it was published.

Italy's national development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) signed an agreement with Assifact, the Italian factoring industry association, to make available a EUR 1 billion "Plafond Factoring" dedicated to supporting liquidity for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-cap companies operating in Italy. Banks and financial intermediaries draw on the CDP facility to acquire commercial credits from eligible companies (fewer than 250 full-time-equivalent employees for SMEs, fewer than 3,000 for mid-caps), providing short-term financing in pro-solvendo and/or pro-soluto factoring form. The measure is part of CDP's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan and follows over EUR 30 billion in similar liquidity plafonds CDP has deployed since 2009.

Türkiye's Grand National Assembly adopted Law No. 7552 (İklim Kanunu) on 2 July 2025, published in the Resmî Gazete on 9 July 2025 (Issue 32951) and entering into force immediately. The law is Türkiye's first comprehensive climate statute, establishing the legal framework for a national Emissions Trading System (ETS) — pilot phase from 2026, full implementation from 2028 — and creating the Carbon Market Board (Karbon Piyasası Kurulu) to govern allowance allocation and market operations. The ETS is designed for EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) compatibility, materially affecting Türkiye's steel, cement, aluminium, and fertilizer export sectors, for which the EU is the primary market.

On June 27, 2025, the Government of Canada, by the Governor in Council, ordered Hikvision Canada Inc. — the Canadian subsidiary of Chinese video-surveillance manufacturer Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. — to wind up its Canadian business and cease all operations within 120 days, following a national security review under the Investment Canada Act. The order requires Hikvision Canada to immediately stop sales, marketing and after-sales support, and to terminate staff and contracts within the wind-up window. Alongside the order, the government prohibited federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations from purchasing or using Hikvision products and directed audits to remove existing installations from federal facilities.