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

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.

Iraq's Council of Ministers Decision No. 957 of 2025 (approved late 2025) revises the country's full customs tariff schedule — roughly 16,400 tariff lines across 99 HS chapters — into rate brackets from 0.5% to 30%, effective 1 January 2026 at all federal ports. Within that reform, the General Customs Authority singled out hybrid and electric vehicles (model year 2025 and newer) — previously exempt to encourage adoption — for a new 15% import duty, alongside a matching 15% duty on gold and other goods classed as non-essential/luxury. Global Trade Alert logs Austria, Canada and China as the leading supplier-origin countries affected, though the duty applies non-discriminately to all countries of origin.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that unwrought palladium from Russia is being sold in the United States at less than fair value, setting a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin and cash-deposit rate of 132.83% ad valorem for the Russia-wide entity (calculated using facts available with adverse inferences after no respondent cooperated). The investigation covered the January 1 - June 30, 2025 period and was applicable from 2026-02-19. Commerce confirmed the same 132.83% margin in its final determination (2026-05-01), but the US International Trade Commission subsequently found no material injury to the US industry (2026-05-29), so no antidumping duty order was issued and the cash-deposit requirement was discontinued.

The US Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that Russian producers and exporters of unwrought palladium receive countervailable subsidies, and set a preliminary all-others countervailing duty cash-deposit rate of 109.10% ad valorem (the same rate applied to the two named respondents, JSC Urals Innovative Technologies and Prioksky Plant of Non-Ferrous Metals, both calculated using facts available with adverse inferences). The investigation was initiated 2025-08-19 covering the 2024 calendar-year period, with the preliminary determination effective 2026-03-11. A companion antidumping duty investigation on the same product ran in parallel; Commerce issued its final affirmative CVD determination on 2026-05-20.