Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 29 June 2026 the US President declared an emergency under Section 318(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1318(a)) over "threats to the availability of sufficient supplies of fertilizers to meet expected agricultural demand" and suspended collection of duties and estimated-duty deposits under 19 U.S.C. §§1671, 1675 and 1677j — the countervailing and antidumping statutes — on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco. The suspension runs for the earlier of eight months from the proclamation date or termination of the emergency, and effectively lifts the AD/CVD wall (already reduced to a 2.11% CVD rate by a December 2025 Court of International Trade remand in the OCP case) on Moroccan phosphate imports. Morocco (OCP Group) holds roughly 70% of world phosphate-rock reserves and is the single largest external phosphate-fertilizer source into the US farm supply chain.

Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1440 of 2026 was published in Egypt's Official Gazette (Al-Waqa'i Al-Misriyya) on 6 May 2026 and entered into force on 7 May 2026. The decree amends the Executive Regulations of Mineral Resources Law No. 198 of 2014, replacing operative provisions previously governed by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 108 of 2020. Key changes include reducing the minimum government-equity floor for MRMIA participation in mining JVs from 25% to 10%, empowering MRMIA to incorporate or participate in specialised exploration and exploitation companies inside and outside Egypt, revising rental rates and royalty parameters, introducing a new laboratory-licensing regime, and adding land-use prohibitions around archaeological sites, airports, railways, and pipelines.

On 12 March 2026 Senegal's Primature held a press conference releasing mid-term findings of the National Commission for the Re-evaluation and Renegotiation of Petroleum, Gas, and Mining Contracts, created in August 2024 under Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko's reform programme. The Commission identified a 1,075.9 billion FCFA shortfall in the mining sector — concentrated in unpaid taxes/royalties and unauthorised tax exemptions at ICS (Industries Chimiques du Sénégal) — and announced the termination of four offshore oil-exploration blocks (Djifer Offshore, Kayar Offshore, Saint-Louis Offshore, Rufisque Offshore). Renegotiation of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas project, operated by BP with Kosmos Energy and Woodside as partners on the Senegal-Mauritania maritime border, is under active examination; the Primature projects 900 bn FCFA in incremental fiscal revenue 2026-2040 from the contract revision programme. This is Senegal's first major instance of retroactive resource-contract review under the Sonko-Faye government and establishes the legal-political baseline for subsequent contract renegotiations across the 27 mining contracts and remaining hydrocarbon licences under Commission review.

On 4 February 2026, in Washington, DC, the United States and the Kingdom of Morocco signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on critical-mineral and rare-earth supply chains, covering exploration, extraction, processing, and downstream investment. The MoU was one of eleven founding-member bilateral instruments signed simultaneously at the inaugural FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Morocco holds approximately 70-75% of the world's known phosphate reserves and is a globally significant cobalt, copper, and nickel producer; the framework explicitly aims to attract Western investment into Moroccan downstream processing capacity rather than raw-mineral export.

On 15 January 2026, Brazil's Gecex executive committee (Câmara de Comércio Exterior) published Resolução nº 845, amending Annex IX of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to temporarily raise import duties above the Mercosur Common External Tariff on eight NCM product lines. Affected products include sodium pyrophosphate and ammonium carbonate (17.5%), propylene glycol, expandable polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate (20%), sorbitol (20%, with a 12.6% carve-out for a specific food/pharma-grade aqueous solution), and wood screws (25%). The increases took effect 19 January 2026 and expire 18 January 2027, a one-year window functioning as a safeguard-style protection for domestic chemical, plastics and fastener producers.

On 2 January 2026 the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources concluded the 9th Exploration Licensing Round — the largest mining-licensing round in the Kingdom's history — by awarding 172 mining sites (including 76 sites cleared via multi-round public auction) to 24 companies and consortia drawn from 26 qualified bidders. The round covered over 24,000 km² spanning the Ad-Duwaihi/Nabitah gold belt (Riyadh region) and the Nuqrah and Sukhaybirah/As-Safra gold belts (Madinah and Qassim regions). Successful bidders committed over SAR 671 million of exploration spend in the first two years of their work programmes; total project investment across the round's awarded licences exceeds SAR 44 billion (~USD 11.7 bn) and represents a 220% YoY surge in licensing-round commitments versus the 2024 round. The round operationalises auction provisions of the 2020 Mining Investment Law (Royal Decree M/47) and is the first Saudi licensing round to formally include the Aramco-Ma'aden lithium JV (Manara Minerals) on the bidder side.