Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 24 September 2026 the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Foreign Trade issued notice 商贸农函〔2026〕163号 publicising, for public comment, the proposed list of 42 enterprises to receive a redistribution of China's 2026 sugar import tariff-rate quota. The public-notice period runs 24-30 September 2026; objections to an applicant's eligibility are to be sent in writing to the Department. The notice and its annex do not state the redistributed volume, per-company allocations or any tariff rate.

On 23 September 2026 USTR announced the final country allocations of the FY2027 WTO tariff-rate quota for imported raw cane sugar. The total quota is 1,117,195 metric tons raw value (MTRV), the WTO minimum commitment; 1,061,202 MTRV was allocated by notice of 24 July 2026 (91 FR 46822) and the remaining 55,993 MTRV is distributed to additional countries in this announcement. In-quota quantities may enter the United States from 1 October 2026, and allocations to net sugar-importing countries require origin documentation and certificates of quota eligibility.

The Department of Food & Public Distribution raised the sugar stock-holding limit for bulk consumers — entities producing or consuming more than 10 tonnes of sugar per month — from 15 days to 30 days of consumption, effective immediately ahead of the festive season. The doubled ceiling applies only to sugar sourced under the Advance Authorisation Scheme (AAS) or Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) import routes; stock bought on the open market remains capped at 15 days. Covered consumers must now file a weekly stock declaration every Friday on the DFPD's foodstock.dfpd.gov.in portal.

On 18 September 2026 the President signed a proclamation extending Proclamation 10973 (originally issued 19 September 2025), which conditions issuance/entry on new H-1B specialty-occupation petitions on a $100,000 payment by the sponsoring employer, for a further 12 months through 21 September 2027 (exceptions remain at DHS Secretary discretion for national-interest cases). Alongside it the President signed a companion executive order, "Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program," directing DHS, State and Labor to coordinate review of H-1B petitions and consult Commerce, Education and SBA on employment data, with heightened scrutiny for employers with recent or planned US-worker layoffs. The accompanying fact sheet cites a 92% drop in H-1B registrations by the largest IT-outsourcing firms (24,946 to 2,055) and a ~97% decrease in consular H-1B processing requests since the original 2025 proclamation. ## Severity basis Quant anchor from the primary source: $100,000 flat fee per covered H-1B petition, extended for a further 12-month term (through 2027-09-21); a measured 92% reduction in H-1B registrations by the largest IT-outsourcing filers (24,946 → 2,055) and a ~97% drop in consular H-1B processing requests attributed to the fee regime since its 2025 introduction. Severity 4/5: a binding, renewed cost barrier with a demonstrated order-of-magnitude effect on offshore-staffing-dependent filers, not a one-off or symbolic measure.

On 9 July 2026 Chile's Contraloría General de la República published Resolución N°14/2026 in the Diario Oficial, modifying its prior toma de razón exemption framework for corporate acts of state copper producers Codelco and Enami. Instead of requiring preventive review (toma de razón) before corporate acts of affiliates take effect, the resolution lets Codelco/Enami adopt the acts first and submit supporting documentation (board minutes and background materials) for ex-post Contraloría review within 10 business days. The change ends a dispute that began when Contraloría required preventive review of Codelco's formation of Minera Ascotán SpA (Codelco 34% / Quiborax 66%, for the Salar de Ascotán lithium project), which had stalled that CEOL's corporate structuring; Codelco withdrew its recurso de amparo económico against Contraloría after the resolution was published.