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

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber Executive Committee (GECEX/CAMEX) adopted Resolução GECEX nº 855 on 13 February 2026, imposing a five-year definitive antidumping duty on hypodermic needles (agulhas hipodérmicas) originating from China, classified under NCM tariff code 9018.32.19 (other tubular metal needles). The duty is collected as a specific tariff fixed in US dollars per thousand units, with rates ranging from USD 0.23 to USD 25.57/thousand units depending on the Chinese producer/exporter. The measure was published in the Diário Oficial da União (DOU Edição 32) on 18 February 2026, enters into force from publication, and marks the first medical-device trade-remedy action on the IPTM register. Scope exclusions cover insulin needles, biopsy needles, animal insemination needles, anesthesia needles, bulk non-sterile needles, and non-hypodermic needles.

On 9 February 2026 USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Bangladesh Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin signed the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) between the United States and Bangladesh in Washington DC — USTR's first ART signing in South Asia, preceding the US-India interim-trade-framework finalisation by three days. The deal locks the US reciprocal tariff on Bangladesh-originating goods at 19% (down from 35% under the April 2025 IEEPA regime) and establishes a zero-percent mechanism for products on the Annex III aligned- partner list (EO 14346, 5 September 2025). Bangladesh commits to significant preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural goods — including chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, medical devices, ICT equipment, energy products, soy, dairy, beef, poultry, tree nuts, and fruit — and to eliminating specified non- tariff barriers including acceptance of US Federal motor-vehicle safety and emissions standards, FDA certificates, and prior marketing authorisations for medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 844, de 30 de dezembro de 2025, amending Annexes IV and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to modify import tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and duties on 15 products, effective 1 January 2026. The resolution establishes new duty-free (0%) TRQs for 11 product categories — including nutritional supplements (30 metric tons/year), animal-feed additives, contact lenses (a combined 40.375 million units/year across two NCM headings), electrical cable connectors, and glass ampoules — while removing existing duty-free quota treatment for four products (a thermal-control polyethylene film, a rubber sanitary/contraceptive item under NCM 4014.10.00, an anhydrous sodium-compound chemical under NCM 2836.20.10, and one further excluded product), whose duty reverts from 0% to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) rate. The measure is a routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance action rather than a trade-remedy or policy-driven restriction.

China's State Council Tariff Commission published its annual "2026 Tariff Adjustment Plan" (税委会公告2025年第11号) on 29 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026. The plan sets provisional import tariff rates below MFN levels on 935 products, while cancelling provisional rates on certain other products (reverting them to standard MFN rates). It adds new national tariff subheadings for intelligent bionic robots, bio-aviation kerosene, forest-grown ginseng, and other items, bringing the total tariff schedule to 8,972 lines. The government frames the provisional-rate cuts — covering key components and advanced materials such as CNC hydraulic air cushions for stamping presses, recycled "black powder" (黑粉) lithium-ion battery feedstock, artificial blood vessels and infectious-disease diagnostic kits — as support for "high-level sci-tech self-reliance" and modernisation of the industrial system. China also continues zero-tariff treatment on 100% of tariff lines for the 43 least-developed countries with diplomatic relations with China, and continues Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement preferential rates for Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 821, de 1º de dezembro de 2025, amending Annex V (Letec — List of Exceptions to the Common External Tariff) and Annex X (List of Temporary Exceptions for Automotive Products under ACE 14) of the base tariff-nomenclature Resolução Gecex nº 272/2021. The resolution took effect on the date of its publication in the Diário Oficial da União. Global Trade Alert tracks the measure as four discrete tariff-line interventions bundled under one state act: (1) an import-tariff increase on butyl and sodium-polyacrylate chemical inputs, effective 5 December 2025; (2) a reduction of the import tariff to zero for a pharmaceutical product under NCM 3004.90.79, effective 5 December 2025; (3) a new import tariff-rate quota for a chemical/pigment product under NCM heading 3306.11, effective 5 December 2025; and (4) an import-tariff increase on 16 medical-device products under NCM 9018.90.99, effective 2 December 2025. Two of the four sub-measures are duty increases (harmful to importers) and two are duty reductions/new liberalising quotas — consistent with Gecex's routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance cycle rather than a targeted trade-remedy or industrial-policy action.

On 5 February 2026, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno signed in Washington the United States-Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment (ARTI), formalising the framework jointly announced on 13 November 2025. The agreement is the first standalone bilateral trade-and-investment instrument concluded by the second Trump administration and the first FTA-style agreement signed under the post-IEEPA reciprocal-tariff architecture (Executive Order 14257, "Liberation Day"). On the US side, the ARTI sets out three tariff schedules: (i) Schedule 2A suspends additional reciprocal tariffs under EO 14257 for specified Argentine-origin goods (covering "unavailable natural resources" and non-patented pharmaceutical inputs); (ii) Schedule 2B grants a zero additional reciprocal tariff for designated Argentine agricultural products under EO 14360; and (iii) caps additional ad-valorem duties on other goods at 10% above MFN rates, inclusive of IEEPA reciprocal tariffs. On the Argentine side, illustrative tariff-rate quotas include duty-free access for 80,000 MT of US beef in calendar year 2026, 1,000 MT for cheese, 870 MT for almonds, 40 MT in-shell + 40 MT shelled for pistachios, 80,000 litres for wine (<2 L bottles), and preferential treatment for 10,000 motor vehicles meeting defined technical parameters. Argentina additionally commits to broader preferential market access on medicines, chemicals, machinery, information-technology products, medical devices, and a wide range of agricultural goods, alongside IP-enforcement upgrades (counterfeit/pirated-goods enforcement, patentability criteria, patent-backlog reduction, geographical indications) and investment-facilitation commitments that align Argentina's regime with US-preferred standards on regulatory cooperation, labour and environment.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 756, de 7 de julho de 2025, amending Annexes V, VI and X of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021, the instrument that adapted Brazil's Common Mercosur Nomenclature/Common External Tariff schedule to the 2022 Harmonized System revision). The amendment changes import tariffs and tariff-rate quotas for a narrow set of product lines including airport fire-fighting vehicles (NCM 8705.30.00), sterile saline flush and elevator guide rails, with a companion Portaria Secex nº 410/2025 setting the quota-allocation criteria. Global Trade Alert flags China, Germany and Italy as the principal affected trading partners.

China's Ministry of Finance issued Caiku [2025] No. 19 on 3 July 2025, effective 6 July 2025, restricting EU-origin medical devices in Chinese government procurement. For procurement projects with budgets of CNY 45 million (~USD 6.3 million) or more, purchasers must exclude EU enterprises (excluding EU-invested enterprises operating in China) from participation where imported products are genuinely required; non-EU bidders that do participate may not source more than 50% of the contract value from EU-imported medical devices. Contracts already awarded before the effective date are grandfathered. The notice is explicitly framed as a reciprocal response to the European Commission's 20 June 2025 measure restricting Chinese medical-device firms and products from EU public procurement under the EU's International Procurement Instrument (IPI).

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1197 on 19 June 2025, published in the Official Journal on 20 June 2025 and applicable from 30 June 2025. It imposes the EU's first-ever International Procurement Instrument (IPI) measure, excluding tenders submitted by economic operators originating in China from EU public procurement contracts for medical devices (CPV codes 33100000-1 to 33199000-1) valued at EUR 5,000,000 or more net of VAT. Even where a non-Chinese bidder wins, no more than 50% of the contract's value may be sourced from China-origin medical devices (IPI Article 8(1)). Contracting authorities may waive the measure only where solely Chinese bidders meet requirements or for overriding public-interest reasons (IPI Article 9(1)).