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

Türkiye imposed a provisional WTO safeguard measure on imports of PET resin (polyethylene terephthalate, viscosity ≥78 ml/g, GTİP 3907.61.00.00.00) via Presidential Decision No. 10806, published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 5. Mükerrer) alongside the implementing "İthalatta Korunma Önlemlerine İlişkin Tebliğ" (Tebliğ No. 2026/1). The measure levies an additional financial obligation of USD 100 per tonne, applied erga omnes for up to 200 days while the Ministry's full safeguard investigation continues. A tariff-quota carve-out exempts eligible developing-country origins meeting the WTO Safeguards Agreement Article 9 de-minimis threshold (individually ≤3% of 2024 imports, collectively ≤9%): roughly 3,693 tonnes per country and 11,079 tonnes in aggregate are admitted duty-free before the $100/tonne obligation applies to the remainder. Leading 2024 PET resin suppliers to Türkiye include China, South Korea and Italy.

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2026/3 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025 (Sayı 33124, 4th mükerrer), entering into force 30 days later on 30 January 2026. It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on vacuum storage bags: imports priced below a reference unit customs value require a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued electronically by the Ministry's Import Directorate General before customs clearance. Global Trade Alert logs the measure as a "certainly harmful" intervention but does not publicly disclose the exact GTİP line or USD/unit threshold; no single exporting country is named in the primary text.

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 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Project to Promote the Strengthening of Autonomous Resource Circulation Systems" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. The line is the continuation of METI's "Decarbonisation Growth-Type Economic Structure Transition Promotion Subsidy (Autonomous Resource Circulation System Strengthening Promotion Project)" (脱炭素成長型経済 構造移行推進対策費補助金（自律型資源循環システム強靱化促進事業）), which funds private-sector investment in recycled-material manufacturing and recovery equipment for rare metals/rare earths, automotive and small-electronics lithium-ion batteries, plastics, and textiles. Japanese budget-press reporting puts the FY2026 allocation at JPY 7.3 billion (73億円), up from JPY 3.0 billion (30億円) in FY2025 -- roughly a 2.4x year-on-year increase. METI opened the call for the executing body (執行団体) on 18 February 2026, with the General Incorporated Association for Low-Carbon Investment Promotion (GIO) again acting as the designated administrator, as it did for the FY2025 round.

On 9 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) issued the December 2025 batch expansion of its Mandatory List — a binding instrument requiring government entities, state-owned enterprises, and sub-contractors to source listed products exclusively from Saudi domestic manufacturers meeting the LCGPA-defined local-content threshold. The December 2025 expansion brings the list to approximately 1,444 national products across 16 sectors, effective 1 March 2026, with LCGPA targeting a total of approximately 2,000 products by end-2026. The Mandatory List operationalises the demand-side layer of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 / National Industrial Strategy (NIS) industrial-policy stack, directly restricting foreign-supplier access to Saudi annual government-procurement budgets estimated at SAR 500 billion+ across central government, Aramco, PIF-portfolio entities, Ma'aden, SEC, STC, Saudi Post, and Saudi Railway.

On 1 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) signed localization and knowledge-transfer agreements with four domestic manufacturers — Al-Sweedy Electric, Al-Sahel Company, Al-Zamel Company, and Composite Materials Company — to establish local production of polymer (fibre-composite) street-lighting poles, displacing imported metal and plastic poles. The initiative was run as a competitive "localization opportunity" tender (opened via LCGPA's Localization of Industry & Knowledge Transfer program, submissions closed 14 February 2025) under the sponsorship of the Public Investment Fund's Oil Sustainability Program, which promotes polymer/composite substitutes for hydrocarbon-linked feedstocks. Once qualifying domestic production is established, the product is slated for addition to LCGPA's Mandatory List, which would require government entities, SOEs, and their sub-contractors to source the item exclusively from the approved local manufacturers.

Brazil's Gecex/Camex approved Resolução Gecex Nº 816 on 11 November 2025, effective 13 November 2025 and set to expire 12 November 2026, amending Annex IX of the base tariff-nomenclature Resolução Gecex Nº 272/2021 (the "List of Tariff Increases for Reasons of Trade Imbalances Derived from the International Economic Situation"). The measure bundles two opposite-direction interventions across six products/NCM lines: a temporary import-tariff increase on five products, and a temporary import-tariff decrease on one product (NCM 7610.90.00, aluminium structures and parts thereof). It affects sectors including pulp and paper, other plastics products, and structural metal products.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 812 on 28 October 2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 30 October 2025, amending the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) and its corresponding Common External Tariff (TEC) to align with Mercosur Common Market Group Resolutions 17/25, 18/25 and 19/25, and amending the earlier GECEX Resolution No. 272/2021. The update reclassifies and adjusts duties across a range of tariff lines — including raising duty on some helmet and protective-headgear categories while lowering it on others — with a plastics products line flagged among affected sectors. It takes effect 1 February 2026, alongside Brazil's broader routine cadence of GECEX tariff-schedule maintenance resolutions (Nos. 810, 811, 815, 816 in the same window).

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT) issued its final affirmative dumping/injury determination on rutile-grade titanium dioxide (HS 3206.11) originating in China on 27 October 2025, published in the Umm Al-Qura official gazette and effective 28 October 2025. Producer-specific CIF duty rates were set at 19.39% (Shandong Dawn), 29.65% (Anhui Gold Star), 30.9% (LB Group/Lomon Billions), 32.21% (Yibin Tianyuan), and 37.27% (Pangang Group Vanadium & Titanium Resources), with a 45% residual rate for all other Chinese exporters. Anatase-grade TiO2 is explicitly excluded from scope. The measure runs for five years to 26 October 2030, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority directed to collect the duty.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Executive Committee (GECEX/CAMEX) imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty for up to five years on imports of rutile-type titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments classified under NCM 3206.11.10 (minimum 80% TiO2 content) originating in China, via Resolução GECEX nº 802 signed 23 October 2025 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 24 October 2025. The duty is levied as a specific tariff ranging from USD 1,148.72 to USD 1,267.74 per metric tonne depending on the identified Chinese producer/exporter. A subsequent public-interest review (Circular SECEX nº 21/2026) was opened in March 2026 and could suspend or modify the measure if a public-interest finding is made.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 799, de 10 de outubro de 2025, amending Annex IV of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) under the Mercosur supply-shortage tariff-reduction mechanism (Mercosur GMC Resolution nº 49/19). The resolution establishes ten new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas covering sodium metabisulfite (24,650 t/year), bisphenol A (10,000 t/year), a microbial inoculant (3,948 units/year), fibrous-grade anatase titanium dioxide (1,500 t/year), banknote security ink (12,000 kg/year), two grades of polyether for concrete additives (2,500 t and 700 t/year), aliphatic polyisocyanate (15,000 t/year), electrolytic manganese metal flakes (972 t/year), and 345kV aluminum conductor power cable (4,000 t/year). Quotas run for one year from their individual validity start dates (16 October 2025 or 27 November 2025 depending on product), granting duty-free entry within volume caps where domestic Mercosur supply is judged insufficient.

On 1 October 2025, Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF), a CAD 15 billion federal Crown corporation, committed CAD 30 million as part of a growth investment in Cascadia Windows & Doors, a British Columbia-based manufacturer of high-performance fiberglass windows and doors, led by private-equity firm MKB Equity Partners with additional participation from Blue Earth Capital. Per CGF's own FY2025 annual report, the commitment totals CAD 31 million including CAD 1 million in partnership fees and expenses, of which CAD 19.1 million was deployed during Fiscal 2025. CGF states the capital will fund expansion of Cascadia's manufacturing capacity and North American market footprint, accelerating deployment of fiberglass window systems that support buildings-sector decarbonization (Cascadia's products claim up to 250% improved thermal performance versus aluminum frames and ~58% recycled content).

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).

Presidential Decree No. 464 of 9 July 2025 amends the standing Decree No. 302 (25 April 2023) list of foreign-owned assets under "temporary management," adding 100 percent of the shares in JSC PETRUS — owned by Cyprus-registered Pet.Rus Plastic Holdings Ltd — and transferring control to SafPet Aktiv LLC, a Kazan-based entity wholly owned by Tatneft. PETRUS produces PET preforms, polymer caps and BOPET film, with its flagship plant in Noginsk, Moscow region. The transfer follows a Vakhitovsky District Court (Kazan) order arresting PETRUS's assets in a criminal case against Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky, whom investigators identify as the company's beneficial owner.

The European Commission approved a EUR 227.9 million (USD ~267.1 million) Innovation Fund grant for TotalEnergies Raffinerie Antwerpen N.V.'s "ARCaDe" (Antwerp Refinery Carbon capture and DeNOx) project, with the grant agreement signed on 22 July 2025. ARCaDe was one of six projects — spanning refinery decarbonisation, hydrogen, ocean energy, plastics recycling, and green heat — invited off the Innovation Fund 2023 general-call (IF23Call) reserve list after eight originally-selected projects withdrew from the March 2025 signing round; the six-project cohort was worth nearly EUR 319 million combined. The project targets carbon capture and NOx-reduction retrofits at TotalEnergies' Antwerp refinery, financed via the EU Emissions Trading System.

New Zealand Customs Service, acting under section 8 of the Tariff Act 1988, published Tariff Concession Approvals, Withdrawals and Declines Notice (No. 17) 2025 in the Gazette on 4 July 2025. The notice grants new duty-free tariff concessions on goods across tariff items 3919-9405 (adhesive tapes and films, fibreglass products, industrial machinery, heating/cooling equipment, electronic controls and marine vessels) not manufactured domestically, effective 1 July 2025, while withdrawing a comparable set of prior concession approvals effective 30 June 2025. This is a routine, periodic administrative tariff-concession cycle rather than a discrete policy announcement.

Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1303 of 23 June 2025, published in the Official Journal on 30 June 2025 and applying from 1 July 2025, amends Regulation (EU) 2021/2278 and replaces the EU's autonomous Common Customs Tariff (CCT) duty-suspension list for agricultural and industrial inputs "not produced in the Union in sufficient quantity." The revision extends or newly grants reduced/zero duty treatment to 79 industrial products across 48 six-digit CN tariff subheadings, while also raising import duties on four specific products: rubber thread and cord (CN 4007.00.00), certain flexible plastic sheets/plates/film (CN 3920.10.89), and fixed vegetable/microbial fats and oils (CN 1515.60.99). The measure is erga omnes (applies to all trading partners, not a bilateral concession).

Pakistan's National Tariff Commission (NTC) issued its final determination in anti-dumping case ADC-66, imposing a definitive 26.76% ad valorem duty on imports of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) self-adhesive tapes in jumbo rolls (PCT 3919.9010 / 3919.9090) originating from China, effective for five years from January 31, 2025. The investigation, initiated on the petition of domestic manufacturer M/s Universal Coating Films (Pvt.) Limited, found that Chinese-origin BOPP tapes were being dumped into Pakistan at injuriously low prices, causing material injury to the domestic packaging-tape industry. The measure supersedes the provisional 14.99% duty imposed in January 2025 and was announced in the final determination report published on 24 May 2025.

MOFCOM Announcement No. 25 of 2025 (18 May 2025) issued the final ruling in the anti-dumping investigation into copolyacetal (共聚聚甲醛, polyoxymethylene copolymer/POM copolymer, an engineering plastic used in automotive parts, electronics and precision components) imported from the United States, the EU, Taiwan and Japan, initiated 19 May 2024 (MOFCOM Announcement No. 18 of 2024). MOFCOM found dumping, material injury to the domestic industry and a causal link, and imposed anti-dumping duties effective 19 May 2025 for a five-year term under Article 38 of China's Anti-Dumping Regulations. Rates: 74.9% for US companies; 42.0% for EU companies; 3.8%-32.6% for Taiwan-region companies (named companies at the low end, "other Taiwan companies" at 32.6%); 33.9%-43.7% for Japanese companies (named companies at the low end, "other Japanese companies" at 35.5% per the 2026 succession notice). On 20 August 2026, MOFCOM Announcement No. 36 of 2026 ruled that Daicel Corporation succeeds to Polyplastics Co., Ltd.'s 35.5% rate and Daicel HPP Taiwan Co., Ltd. succeeds to Polyplastics Taiwan Co.'s 3.8% rate, both following corporate reorganizations, effective 21 August 2026 (filed below as an amendment).

India's DGFT issued Notification No. 07/2025-26 on 17 May 2025, with immediate effect, restricting the entry points through which Bangladesh goods may be imported into India. All ready-made garments (RMG) from Bangladesh are barred from land ports entirely and may enter only via Nhava Sheva and Kolkata seaports; processed food, rubber and plastic goods, and wooden furniture are barred from Land Customs Stations (LCSs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and at Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal. The notification is widely read as a retaliatory measure responding to Bangladesh's April 2025 NBR land-port yarn-import ban, and is the first bilateral India-Bangladesh trade-restriction instrument filed in the IPTM register.

Indonesia's Ministry of Finance extended for a second three-year term the import safeguard duty (Bea Masuk Tindakan Pengamanan / BMTP) on expansible polystyrene (EPS) resin (HS 3903.11.10), via Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 29 of 2025, effective 23 May 2025 to 22 May 2028. The extension follows a KPPI investigation opened 22 July 2024 that found the domestic industry still needed time to complete structural adjustment despite a fall in import volumes. The duty is a specific (per-kilogram) levy declining annually and applies to all source countries, principally Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

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.