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

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 844, de 30 de dezembro de 2025, amending Annexes IV and V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) to modify import tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and duties on 15 products, effective 1 January 2026. The resolution establishes new duty-free (0%) TRQs for 11 product categories — including nutritional supplements (30 metric tons/year), animal-feed additives, contact lenses (a combined 40.375 million units/year across two NCM headings), electrical cable connectors, and glass ampoules — while removing existing duty-free quota treatment for four products (a thermal-control polyethylene film, a rubber sanitary/contraceptive item under NCM 4014.10.00, an anhydrous sodium-compound chemical under NCM 2836.20.10, and one further excluded product), whose duty reverts from 0% to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff (TEC) rate. The measure is a routine periodic tariff-schedule maintenance action rather than a trade-remedy or policy-driven restriction.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved a BRL 331 million (~USD 60 million) loan, drawn from the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante), to Tecon Rio Grande S/A — the Wilson Sons container-terminal subsidiary operating Rio Grande do Sul's only dedicated container terminal — to fund dock automation, new ship-to-shore and rubber-tyred-gantry cranes, electric yard tractors and charging infrastructure, and dredging works. The financing is intended to let the terminal accommodate larger vessels and cut ship dwell time, reinforcing Tecon Rio Grande's role as a Southern Cone logistics hub serving Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay trade.

Pakistan's Directorate General of Customs Valuation (Karachi), acting under the Federal Board of Revenue, issued Valuation Ruling No. 2024/2025 on 24 November 2025 (C.No. Misc/54/2021-III/1115), superseding Valuation Ruling No. 1822/2023 and setting fresh minimum customs values (C&F, US$/kg) for latex rubber threads across four count-range bands, differentiated by origin: China at US$2.69-3.53/kg and Malaysia/Thailand at US$2.85-3.66/kg, rising with thread count (30-44, 45-55, 56-63, 64-90 counts). The Directorate rationalized the values downward at stakeholders' request, citing a documented downward trend in prevailing international prices; the ruling functions as an enforceable minimum-value floor under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969, applied when declared invoice values fall below the benchmark.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 815, de 3 de novembro de 2025, amending Annex IV of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021) under the Mercosur supply-shortage tariff-reduction mechanism (Mercosur CMC Resolution nº 49/19). The resolution establishes five new duty-free (0%) temporary import tariff-rate quotas — DHA nutritional preparation (80 metric tons/year), rubber gasket/retainer parts (6,250 kg/year), linen yarn (240 metric tons/year), ballistic steel plate (400 metric tons/year) and loudspeakers (5 million units/year) — valid 7 November 2025 to 6 November 2026, while removing an existing duty-free quota for monocalcium phosphate (NCM 2835.26.00), reverting that line to the standard Mercosur Common External Tariff rate.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted the 19th package of restrictive measures against Russia, anchored by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 amending Regulation 833/2014 (sectoral sanctions), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2035 amending Regulation 269/2014 (asset-freeze listings — 22 individuals + 42 entities, total 69 listings), and Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (parallel Belarus measures). The package closes the Russian-LNG import loophole left open by the 18th package and establishes the architectural template for crypto-asset sanctions. Headline measures: (i) full prohibition on imports of Russian-origin LNG into the EU — short-term contracts banned six months from entry into force (effective 25 April 2026), long-term contracts (> 1 year, executed before 17 June 2025) phased out by 1 January 2027; (ii) full transaction ban on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft (tightening prior partial measures); (iii) five additional Russian banks added to Annex XIV transaction ban (Alfa-Bank, MTS Bank among them; effective 12 November 2025); (iv) full transaction bans on the Mir card payment system and the Faster Payments System (SBP), effective 25 January 2026; (v) first-ever EU sanctions on a stablecoin — the rouble-backed A7A5 (issuer + developer designated) — and a Paraguay-based cryptocurrency exchange used as a circumvention rail; (vi) prohibition on EU operators contracting with 11 listed Russian Special Economic Zones (Annex LII), with mandatory divestment from Alabuga (Tatarstan) and Technopolis Moscow effective 25 January 2026 — no five-year wind-down available; (vii) 45 entities added to Annex IV military end-user list (28 Russian + 17 third-country: 12 Chinese/Hong Kong, 3 Indian, 2 Thai); (viii) new export restrictions on electronic components, microelectronics, acyclic hydrocarbons, pneumatic rubber tires and propellant chemicals (~EUR 155 m of EU 2024 exports); (ix) prohibition on supply of AI, HPC, and quantum-computing services to Russian persons (effective 25 November 2025); (x) tourism-services ban (1 January 2026 wind-down); (xi) 117 additional shadow-fleet vessels listed (cumulative 557, exceeding the 18th package's 444); (xii) four Belarus + Kazakhstan banks listed for SPFS use (effective 2 December 2025); (xiii) binding ownership/control definitions added to Reg. 269/2014 (50 % proprietary-rights threshold + eight-criterion control test). Entry into force on 24 October 2025 (day following publication in OJ L_202502033), except for measures with explicit deferred application dates.

On 23 October 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2041 (amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006) and Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/2040 (amending Decision 2012/642/CFSP), widening the EU's Belarus restrictive-measures regime in lockstep with the 19th Russia sanctions package adopted the same day. The package widens the export ban to industrial goods (salts, ores, rubber articles, tyres, millstones, construction materials, electronic components, rangefinders, propellant chemicals, metals/oxides/alloys), extends the import ban to all acyclic hydrocarbons, introduces a new prior-licensing requirement for services supplied to Belarus, its government, or public bodies, and mirrors the Russia regime's space, AI, and high-performance/ quantum-computing service restrictions. A companion instrument, Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2039, adds 5 new asset-freeze listings (2 individuals + 3 entities, including JSC Holography Industry, Horizont Holding, and ICT Horizont). Entered into force 24 October 2025.

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).

Türkiye's Ministry of Trade published Tebliğ No. 2025/9 ("İthalatta Gözetim Uygulanmasına İlişkin Tebliğ") in the Official Gazette on 19 September 2025, entering into force 19 October 2025 (30 days after publication). It imposes a forward-looking import surveillance regime on new pneumatic rubber tyres and inner tubes across 15 GTİP lines under headings 4011 (passenger, truck/bus, motorcycle, bicycle and agricultural/forestry tyres) and 4013 (inner tubes), with per-line CIF unit-value reference floors ranging from USD 3/kg (bicycle tyres) to USD 6/kg (steel-braced radial and motorcycle-tube lines). Imports declared below the applicable threshold may only clear customs with a surveillance certificate ("gözetim belgesi") issued by the Ministry's Import Directorate General.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 783 on 28 August 2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 29 August 2025, amending the "Lista de Autopeças Não Produzidas" (List of Non-Produced Auto Parts) under Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 284/2021. The resolution removed 59 tariff-line exemptions across 33 six-digit NCM subheadings (largely rubber-based auto components such as tyres, tubes, and other rubber semi-manufactures) from the Ex-Tarifário reduced-duty regime, reverting those lines to Brazil's standard Mercosur Common External Tariff rate. In the same instrument GECEX separately added 533 products across 122 subheadings to the reduced-duty list; this filing covers only the duty-increasing revocation component, which Global Trade Alert classifies as a "Red" (trade-restrictive) intervention. The resolution took effect seven days after publication (5 September 2025).

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior executive committee (Gecex) approved Resolução nº 779, de 28 de agosto de 2025, amending Annex V of the base tariff-nomenclature resolution (Gecex nº 272/2021). The resolution opens a new one-year, 25,000-tonne tariff-rate quota at a reduced 3.6% duty for chromium sulfate powder (NCM 2833.29.60), adds two natural-rubber lines (TSNR and granulated/pressed rubber, NCM 4001.22.00 / 4001.29.20) to the reduced-tariff annex at 10.8% with no volume cap, and simultaneously removes three antibiotic active-ingredient import lines — piperacillin/ tazobactam, ceftazidime, and meropenem (NCM 3004.10.19, 3004.20.59, 3004.20.99) — from the same reduced-tariff annex, reverting them to the standard (higher) MFN duty.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 750, dated 3 July 2025 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 4 July 2025, amending the "Lista de Autopeças Não Produzidas" (List of Non-Produced Auto Parts) under Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 284/2021. The resolution excluded 532 tariff-line/ ex-number combinations from Annex I and 33 from Annex II — reverting those lines (concentrated in rubber-based auto components such as tyres, tubes, and other rubber semi-manufactures) to Brazil's standard Mercosur Common External Tariff rate — while adding 284 new duty-reduction-eligible codes across Annexes III and IV. The amendment took effect seven days after publication (11 July 2025). Global Trade Alert classifies the measure as a "Red" (trade- restrictive) import-tariff intervention on the basis of its net duty-increasing exclusions.

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).

The European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation on 21 May 2025 (Notice C/2025/2778) into imports of new pneumatic rubber tyres for passenger cars and light lorries (CN codes 4011 10 00 and 4011 20 10) originating in China, following a complaint lodged by the Coalition Against Unfair Tyre Imports representing EU producers. Provisional anti-dumping measures may be imposed within eight months (by approximately January 2026); the investigation must conclude within 14 months (by approximately July 2026). The EU passenger-car tyre import market from China is estimated at over €2 billion annually and is dominated by Chinese brands including Triangle, Linglong, Sailun, and ZC Rubber.

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.

Peraturan Menteri Perdagangan Nomor 8 Tahun 2025 (Permendag 8/2025), signed 6 March 2025 and effective 10 March 2025, is the Third Amendment to Indonesia's Export-Prohibited Goods List (Permendag 22/2023), revising prohibited-export categories across seven commodity groups: forestry (wood, bamboo), agriculture (natural rubber, porang, rice, kratom), subsidised fertilisers (nitrogen-containing mineral/chemical fertilisers), mining (tin and minerals subject to general downstream-processing rules), cultural heritage, metal waste/scrap (iron and steel), and marine sedimentation products (sea sand, marine sludge). The regulation introduces a structured hilirisasi force-majeure relaxation pathway allowing companies that have completed construction of domestic mineral refining/smelting facilities — but cannot yet operate due to force majeure — to temporarily export copper concentrate with a minimum 15% Cu content, subject to Ministry of Trade approval. It is the direct predecessor to the Fourth Amendment (Permendag 6/2026, 26 March 2026).