Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Decreto para la Autorización Inmediata de Inversiones, published in Mexico's Diario Oficial de la Federación on 4 May 2026, creates a streamlined investment-authorization mechanism under President Sheinbaum's Plan México strategy. The decree establishes an Investment Committee — composed of the Secretariats of Economía, Hacienda, SEMARNAT, SCT, Energía, and Bienestar — mandated to issue authorization certificates within 30 business days for qualifying projects, replacing the historic 6–18-month multi-agency backlog. Eligibility covers three tiers: projects in designated Polos de Desarrollo Económico para el Bienestar (Welfare Development Poles), investments of MXN 2 billion (≈USD 100M) or more, and projects in strategic sectors (semiconductors, EV batteries, critical minerals, automotive supply chain, medical devices, biotech, aerospace). This is the procedural- acceleration arm of Plan México, structurally distinct from the January 2025 Plan México tax-incentive decree (the fiscal arm), and operationalises the February 2026 Plan México expansion announced by Sheinbaum.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order No. 110 on March 24, 2026, declaring a one-year State of National Energy Emergency in response to Middle East supply disruptions, including potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, that threaten petroleum import flows to the Philippines. The order activates the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT), suspends normal procurement requirements for emergency energy acquisition, grants the Department of Energy (DOE) emergency fuel-import authority, and releases a ₱20 billion emergency fund to secure fuel supply. The emergency regime also mandates accelerated renewable-energy transition and promotion of EVs in public transport to reduce long-run import dependency.

Ethiopia's Council of Ministers adopted Regulation No. 586/2026 on 23 February 2026, published in the Federal Negarit Gazette No. 17 (Year 31), repealing in its entirety the prior Investment Incentives Regulation No. 517/2022. The regulation replaces the legacy 6-15 year corporate income tax holiday regime with a performance-based reduced-tax-rate architecture: 5% for SEZ developers and recognised startups (up to 10 years), 15% for priority sectors including manufacturing, renewable energy, agro-processing, mining value-addition, and technology (2-6 years by sector), and 25% for companies listing on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange. Incentive eligibility requires a minimum USD 10 million capital investment threshold for most priority sectors, and every beneficiary must sign a binding Performance Agreement with the Ethiopian Investment Commission committing to employment, capital-deployment, production, and export targets before incentives are activated — failure to meet targets results in suspension of all incentives with no grace period.

France's third Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Énergie (PPE3), adopted by Décret n° 2026-76 of 12 February 2026 and published in the Journal Officiel on 13 February 2026, sets the framework for public energy policy in metropolitan continental France from 2026 to 2035. The decree codifies a 60% decarbonised-energy-consumption target by 2030 (from 42% in 2023), a 34% electrification share (585 TWh), and a reduction of fossil fuels to 40% of final energy consumption by 2030 (from 58% in 2023). It also formalises the EPR2 new-build programme (6 + 8 optional reactors) within the long-range generation-mix architecture, pairs with the Stratégie Nationale Bas-Carbone (SNBC3) for a net-zero-2050 trajectory, and includes an annex on clean-mobility development (SDMP).

Brazil's federal innovation-financing agency FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), under the MCTI/FNDCT umbrella, published a BRL 500 million (~USD 94.8 million) public call — "Finep Mais Inovação Brasil – Rodada 2 – Transição Energética" — offering non-repayable economic-subsidy grants for private-sector research, development and innovation projects across eight energy-transition technology lines: low-carbon electricity generation, energy storage, low-carbon hydrogen, biofuels, biogas/biomethane, and carbon capture/storage/use. Applicant companies must partner with at least one Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institution (ICT). Proposal submission opened 2026-03-03 and runs continuously until 2026-08-31 17:00 (Brasília time).

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a USD 350 million financing package with Gulf Renewable Energy Company Limited (GRE), a subsidiary of Thailand's Gulf Development Public Company Limited (GULF), to fund three renewable-energy projects: two solar-plus-battery energy storage system (BESS) plants totaling 126 MW with 151 MWh of storage, and a 68 MW solar power plant. ADB provided USD 75 million from its own ordinary capital resources and acted as sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, mobilizing a further USD 275 million from a DBS Bank B-loan, parallel loans from DEG, Development Finance Institute Canada and Export Finance Australia, and the ADB-administered Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund 2 (LEAP 2). The projects are expected to cut an average of 191,550 tons of CO2 emissions annually, supporting Thailand's 2050 net-zero target.

On 3 February 2026 the European Commission opened an in-depth Phase II investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) — the second FSR ex officio case and the first targeting the renewable-energy wind-OEM sector — into whether Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and its EU affiliates received Chinese foreign subsidies (grants, preferential tax treatment, and state-bank preferential financing) that distort competition for wind-turbine supply and services in the EU internal market. The case (FS.100143) follows the April 2024 preliminary-review opening and subjects Goldwind to an 18-month Phase II investigation with potential redressive-measures decision. The action structurally extends the FSR enforcement perimeter from security equipment (Nuctech, FS.100068) into the green-transition energy-equipment supply chain.

On 1 February 2026 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled India's Union Budget 2026-27, with Customs Notification No. 02/2026-Customs (dated 1 Feb 2026, effective 2 Feb 2026) implementing the customs-duty package. The notification zero-rates basic customs duty (BCD) on (i) capital goods imported for domestic processing of critical minerals — crushing, beneficiation, refining, chemical-processing, separation/purification, and metallurgical/alloy-making equipment; (ii) capital goods for lithium-ion cell manufacturing for battery energy storage systems (BESS), extending the 2024-25 EV-cell exemption to stationary storage; and (iii) twelve additional critical minerals plus cobalt powder and lithium-ion battery scrap, on top of the 25 critical minerals already exempted in the FY2024-25 budget. In parallel, critical minerals (including monazite / rare-earth concentrate) are migrated from the customs-exemption notification mechanism into the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act at Nil BCD, effective 1 May 2026 — a tariffisation step that locks the rate into primary legislation rather than annually renewable notification. The Budget also commits to dedicated critical-mineral / rare-earth-magnet processing corridors in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Structurally this is the fiscal/tariff layer underneath the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM, Jan 2025) and the National Manufacturing Mission (Feb 2025): NCMM funds capex and overseas asset acquisition (₹34,300 cr), this Budget removes the import-duty drag on the equipment needed to actually run domestic processing lines. It complements the REPM scheme (Nov 2025) for sintered rare-earth magnets and Semicon Mission 2.0 (Feb 2026) on the demand side for refined critical minerals.

On 1 February 2026 India's Ministry of Finance tabled the Finance Bill 2026 alongside Customs Notifications 01/2026 to 03/2026-Customs, restructuring the customs tariff schedule across hundreds of HS lines. Duty rates rise on a range of consumer and finished-goods lines (e.g. umbrellas: 20% to "20% or ₹60/piece, whichever is higher"; potassium hydroxide: 0% to 7.5%; INVAR steel: 5% to 7.5%; radio-trunking parts: 5% to 15%; video-game parts: 5% to 20%) while falling on nuclear and renewable-energy inputs (fuel elements and control/absorber rods for nuclear reactors: 7.5% to 0%; sodium antimonate for solar glass: 7.5% to 0%) and on personal-use dutiable imports under heading 9804 (20% to 10%, effective 1 April 2026). Roughly 80 exemptions previously granted by standalone notification are being written into the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act at unchanged rates, effective 1 May 2026 — converting administratively-reversible exemptions into statutory ones.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed an 11-year, EUR 21.5 million loan with Solar Park Kvosted ApS, backed by the EU's InvestEU programme, to co-finance a 50 MW/200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) addition to the existing 100 MWp Kvosted solar park in Viborg Municipality, Central Jutland. The project is owned by European Energy A/S and converts the site into an integrated hybrid solar-plus-storage asset, one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. NIB's below-market development-bank funding cost functions as a state-adjacent subsidy for Danish renewable-energy infrastructure buildout.

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 103.69 million grant to Delgaz Grid SA (Romania), Elektroenergien Sistemen Operator EAD (Bulgaria) and Transelectrica (Romania) under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call, funding the "CARMEN: Smart Grids Increasing RES and Interconnectivity in the SEE Region" Project of Common and Mutual Interest. The grant supports cross-border smart-grid works to strengthen electricity interconnection and renewable-energy integration between Romania and Bulgaria. It is one of 14 cross-border energy infrastructure projects sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call round. CINEA formally awarded the grant certificate for the project on 21 May 2026 at the Energy Infrastructure Forum.

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 180.03 million grant to Repsol Generación Electrica SA under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call, funding the "Construction of the Reversible Pumped-Storage Hydroelectric Power Plant AGUAYO II" Project of Common and Mutual Interest in Cantabria, Spain. It was the single largest individual allocation of the round and the only pumped-storage project among the 14 cross-border energy infrastructure projects sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call. AGUAYO II will support electricity system flexibility and renewable-energy integration; CINEA states it will reduce curtailment of renewable output by an estimated 1,438 GWh/year (about 7.3% of Spain's total curtailed renewables) and cut CO2 emissions by roughly 566,000 tonnes/year by displacing two nearby combined-cycle gas plants. CINEA formally awarded the grant certificate for the project on 21-22 May 2026 at the 12th Energy Infrastructure Forum in Copenhagen. Commissioning is targeted for 31 December 2030.

The New Development Bank (NDB), the BRICS-founded multilateral development bank headquartered in Shanghai, signed a USD 100 million equivalent, five-year RMB-denominated loan agreement with Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Co Ltd for the "Greener Shanghai Project." The facility is an on-lending line: Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank will channel the proceeds to sustainable sub-projects across the city, including wind and solar power, environmental-conservation infrastructure, and digital-infrastructure development, expected to benefit roughly 25 million residents of Shanghai and the wider Yangtze River Delta. NDB below-market development-bank pricing functions as an indirect state-adjacent subsidy for Shanghai's green and digital-infrastructure build-out.

India's Ministry of Mines on 19 January 2026 notified the country's first national Tailings Policy, establishing a standardised framework for the systematic exploration, sampling and economic evaluation of critical and strategic minerals from secondary sources — tailings, mine dumps, slag, anode slimes, red mud and fly ash — at existing mines. The policy designates the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) and Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) as the implementing agencies, and mandates inter-ministry coordination across the Ministries of Coal, Mines, Petroleum and Atomic Energy because critical-mineral host materials cut across sectoral jurisdictions. It supplements the National Critical Mineral Mission (2025-01-29) by adding a secondary-source recovery track aimed at lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements found as companion minerals in legacy mining waste, with the explicit objective of reducing import dependency.

The People's Bank of China announced on 2026-01-15 that it is widening the scope of its Carbon Emission Reduction Support Tool (碳减排支持工具) to cover energy-saving retrofits, green upgrades, and energy green low-carbon transformation projects with direct carbon-reduction effects. The tool operates on a quarterly basis, providing one-year relending funds to financial institutions at below-market rates against qualifying green loans they extend, with total annual operation volume capped at CNY 800 billion (approximately USD 115 billion). PBOC sets each quarter's operation volume based on monetary-policy needs and financial institutions' actual lending to the newly-widened set of supported project categories.

On 7 January 2026 the National Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Industry Policy Committee (the "Semiconductor Board"), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ekniti Nitithanprapas, endorsed the Draft National Strategy for the Development of the Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Industry, prepared by the Board of Investment (BOI) with Roland Berger after a public hearing in October 2025. The 25-year roadmap (2026-2050) targets more than THB 2.5 trillion (~USD 79.6 billion) in investment, training of more than 230,000 highly-skilled engineers, and construction of a complete upstream-to- downstream semiconductor ecosystem with phased milestones for 2030, 2040 and 2050. The strategy prioritises five product groups where Thailand has competitive potential — Power chips, Sensors, Photonics, Analog and Discrete chips — and explicitly aims to move the country beyond OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) into IC design and upstream wafer fabrication ("Made-in-Thailand chips"). Implementation runs through a five-pillar BOI support mechanism: long-term low-interest financing and grants, human-capital development, technology upgrade of the Microelectronics Technology Centre (TMEC), specialised industrial clusters with guaranteed renewable-energy and water security, and streamlined regulatory approvals including a new BOI "FastPass" fast-track facility (16 pilot projects worth THB 170 billion already processed).