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

On 10 December 2025 the European Commission opened an in-depth investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) — its first ex officio Phase II investigation — into whether Chinese state-controlled security-scanner producer Nuctech received foreign subsidies enabling it to offer prices and conditions that EU competitors could not match across airport, port, and border-crossing markets. Nuctech Technology, controlled by Tsinghua Tongfang (PRC state-linked), operates EU subsidiaries in Poland and the Netherlands (Nuctech Warsaw and Nuctech Netherlands), supplying threat-detection scanners to roughly 80% of EU airports and 70% of EU sea and land border crossings. The case (FS.100068) followed April 2024 unannounced FSR dawn raids at Nuctech's Polish and Dutch premises — one of the first uses of FSR inspection powers — and sets a precedent for ex officio scrutiny of state-subsidised foreign incumbents beyond the M&A and public-procurement tracks where FSR had previously operated.

On 25 November 2025 the US EPA announced USD 3 billion in new Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) assistance under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), plus reallocation of a further USD 1.1 billion in previously awarded but unspent state funds, bringing total redirected funding to USD 4.1 billion for state lead service line replacement (LSLR) programmes. Global Trade Alert logs the intervention as a public-procurement-localisation measure because DWSRF/IIJA capital- grant assistance carries standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content requirements for the iron, steel, and manufactured construction products (pipe, fittings) used in funded replacement work. States that have not obligated or spent funds awarded since FY2023 must submit an implementation plan before accessing new funding.

On 20 November 2025 the US EPA opened the 9th round of Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) lending — USD 6.5 billion in WIFIA financing plus USD 550 million under the State WIFIA (SWIFIA) program, USD 7.05 billion in total newly available capacity — and simultaneously approved five new WIFIA loans totaling USD 711 million across Fort Worth TX (USD 347m), Pflugerville TX (USD 176m), Joliet IL (USD 87m), Ashland OR (USD 73m) and Wilton Manors FL (USD 28m). Global Trade Alert logs each individual loan as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because WIFIA capital assistance carries a standing American Iron and Steel (AIS) domestic-content requirement for iron, steel and manufactured products used in EPA-financed water infrastructure — a structural condition of the WIFIA statute rather than a provision unique to this announcement.

On 20 November 2025 the Federal Transit Administration announced USD 2,027,948,082 in combined FY2025 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities and FY2025/2026 Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program awards, covering 165 projects across 45 states and the District of Columbia: USD 397.7 million for 62 Bus Facilities projects and USD 1.63 billion for 103 Low-No projects, funding roughly 2,400 replacement buses. Global Trade Alert logs the round as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because both programs carry standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content requirements — buses and manufactured components funded by the awards must be produced with US-made iron, steel, and manufactured products and final-assembled domestically. FTA formalised the full project list via Federal Register notice on 15 January 2026.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment published the 5th edition of the Government Procurement Rules, effective 1 December 2025, replacing the prior "broader outcomes" framework with a new Rule 8 mandating that agencies "seek economic benefits to New Zealand" in every procurement above the standard thresholds (NZD 100,000 for goods/services and refurbishment works; NZD 9 million for construction works). Agencies must set out their economic-benefit expectations in the Notice of Procurement, apply a minimum 10% evaluation weighting to economic-benefit criteria, write delivery commitments into contracts, and monitor and report on delivery. Global Trade Alert logs the measure as a "certainly harmful" discriminatory public-procurement, nes intervention given its effect of favouring New Zealand-based suppliers over foreign bidders. The 4th edition rules continue to apply to contracts entered before 1 December 2025, including existing All-of-Government panels and syndicated contracts.

East Central Railway (a zonal railway under India's Ministry of Railways) issued a Notice Inviting Tender on 4 October 2025 for a civil-engineering works package valued at approximately INR 2,998.93 crore. As with the parallel NHAI/NHIDCL/UPMRC tender filings on this register, the NIT embeds a domestic-supplier local-content requirement and bid-evaluation purchase-preference margin under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, giving Class-I local suppliers an advantage in the civil-engineering, general-construction, and site-preparation-services categories. Global Trade Alert logs this as a public-procurement preference-margin intervention.

Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), a Coal India subsidiary under India's Ministry of Coal, issued a tender on 1 October 2025 for removal of overburden material and extraction of coal at its Dhoptala mine (Maharashtra), valued at approximately INR 1,324.20 crore. As with the parallel NHAI/NHIDCL/UPMRC/East Central Railway tender filings on this register, the tender embeds a domestic- supplier local-content requirement and bid-evaluation purchase- preference margin under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017. Global Trade Alert logs this as a public-procurement preference-margin intervention.

On 24 September 2025 the Federal Railroad Administration published in the Federal Register a withdrawal-and-reissue of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the FY2024-2025 National Railroad Partnership Program / Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program for projects off the Northeast Corridor (FSP-National), making up to USD 5,070,784,989 available for competitive intercity passenger-rail capital awards, including roughly USD 2.4bn de-obligated from the California High-Speed Rail project. Global Trade Alert logs the NOFO as a public-procurement-localisation intervention because FRA capital-assistance grants carry standing Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) domestic-content and final-assembly requirements. The reissue also withdrew DEI- and climate-related selection criteria attached to the prior Biden-era version of the NOFO. Applications were due 7 January 2026.

On 22 August 2025, Brazil's Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming (MDA) and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) issued joint Portaria Interministerial MDA/MAPA nº 12/2025, part of the "Plano Brasil Soberano" response to the US 40% IEEPA tariff on Brazilian goods (Executive Order 14323). The ordinance creates an exceptional, emergency-character public-procurement channel under Law nº 14.133/2021 and Medida Provisória nº 1.309/2025, allowing federal, state and municipal public administration to buy açaí, coconut water, cashew nuts, Brazil nuts, mangoes, honey, fresh grapes and select fish (corvina, snapper, tilapia and other fresh/frozen fish) directly from producers and exporters who can document lost US sales since January 2023. Beef and coffee are explicitly excluded from the eligible-product list.

Brazil's Inter-Ministerial Commission for Novo PAC Innovations and Acquisitions (CIIA-PAC/CC), under the Casa Civil, published Resolução CIIA-PAC/CC nº 3, de 28 de julho de 2025 in the Diário Oficial da União on 2025-07-31. The resolution designates a list of manufactured healthcare equipment (primary and specialised care items, e.g. vaccine cold-storage units, digital retinographs, electrocautery devices, defibrillators, surgical tables, anesthesia machines, rigid videoendoscopy systems) that qualifies for a public -procurement preference margin under Decreto nº 11,889/2024 and Art. 26 of Lei nº 14,133/2021. Qualifying domestically manufactured products can win public tenders even when priced 10-20% above imported equivalents, provided the manufacturer holds BNDES Finame accreditation and meets national-technology (TECNAC) content criteria. The measure accompanies an announced BRL 2.4 billion government purchase of over 10,000 healthcare equipment units for Brazil's public health system (SUS).

India's Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on 25 July 2025 for the procurement of Air Defence Fire Control Radars for the Indian Army, worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore (~USD 240 million), under the Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured) category. The radars, designed by DRDO and manufactured by BEL, carry a minimum 70% indigenous-content requirement and are intended to detect airborne threats including fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and drones. Global Trade Alert separately logged the award as a public-procurement localisation measure affecting foreign radar suppliers to Czechia, Denmark, and Israel.

Poland's Sejm adopted on 25 July 2025 — and the President signed on 5 August 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1080, in force 7 September 2025) — a Special Act on Strategic Investments in the Field of National Defence and Public Security that creates an accelerated authorisation track for defence and public- security infrastructure projects: a single combined administrative decision issued within 90 days of application, simplified notification regime inside closed military zones, replacement of full environmental and water-law assessments with targeted mitigation, and an exemption from the Public Procurement Law for Ministry-of-National-Defence-cleared unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned weapon platforms and counter-drone systems. The statute is the procedural backbone for Poland's PLN 187bn 2025 defence budget (≈4.7% of GDP, the highest share in NATO) and dovetails with Poland's €43.7bn EU SAFE defence-loan allocation signed in May 2026.

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)).

Federal Law No. 116-FZ, signed 23 May 2025, amends Articles 9 and 10 of Federal Law No. 580-FZ "On the Organisation of Passenger and Baggage Transportation by Passenger Taxi in the Russian Federation" to require, from 1 March 2026, that vehicles entered into regional taxi registries either meet a government-set localisation score (the same points system used for public-procurement eligibility under Government Resolution No. 719, with a floor reported at 3,200 points, rising to 3,500 in 2027 and 3,700 in 2028) or have been produced under a special investment contract concluded between 1 March 2022 and 1 March 2025. Vehicles already on regional registries before 1 March 2026 are grandfathered, with an extended transition to 1 March 2028 in Kaliningrad and the Siberian Federal District; a subsequent December 2025 amendment let self-employed taxi drivers keep using non-localised cars until 2033, capped at 25% of a region's registry.

On 11 March 2025 the European Commission published its proposal for a Critical Medicines Act (CMA), pillar of the broader EU pharmaceutical-resilience agenda alongside the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (filed: 2024-05-23-eu-crma-entry-into-force) and the IRA-style industrial-policy stack. The proposal targets supply security of an EU "Union List" of critical medicines (antibiotics, anti-thrombotics, oncology, cardiovascular, insulin, painkillers) by introducing four mechanisms: (1) Strategic Project status with expedited funding access for critical-medicine manufacturing or active-substance production; (2) public-procurement preferences favouring resilient supply chains and — in defined cases — EU-based production; (3) collaborative cross-Member-State procurement to address fragmented small markets; (4) state-aid framework guidance + international-partnership diversification to reduce single-country (often China-routed) API dependency.