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

China's Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 26 of 2026 on June 24, 2026, establishing a formal reporting and handling system for violations of export controls on strategic minerals and dual-use items, effective July 1, 2026. The mechanism opens two reporting channels — a dedicated hotline (010-12369) and an online portal (aqygzj.mofcom.gov.cn) — through which any organisation or individual may report suspected violations including unauthorised exports, circumvention via third-country re-routing, illegal technology transfers, and provision of services to sanctioned exporters. Anonymous reports are accepted; real-name reporters may qualify for monetary rewards; voluntary self-disclosure is treated as a mitigating factor in penalty determination. Service providers including freight forwarders and financial institutions face mandatory reporting obligations when they discover suspected violations in the course of business.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính issued Directive 38/CĐ-TTg on 5 May 2026, mobilising a cross-ministerial enforcement campaign against intellectual property infringement running 7–30 May 2026 with a 31 May reporting deadline. The directive explicitly responds to the USTR 2026 Special 301 designation of Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country — the first such designation in eleven years — which triggers a statutory 30-day window for USTR to decide whether to open a Section 301 investigation. Ministries of Public Security, Industry and Trade (Market Surveillance), Information and Communications, and Culture are mobilised for coordinated raids targeting counterfeit-goods exporters, pirated-content platforms, and software-copyright violators, with the Prime Minister signalling enforcement will be permanent rather than a one-off campaign.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative released the 2026 Special 301 Report on 30 April 2026, designating Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC) — the most severe category under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2242). This is the first PFC designation since Ukraine held the status from 2013 through 2015, a gap of approximately 11 years. The PFC designation triggers a statutory 30-day window (expiring ~30 May 2026) within which USTR must decide whether to initiate a Section 301 investigation under 19 U.S.C. § 2412(b)(2)(A), which could lead to tariffs, withdrawal of trade benefits, or other Section 301 enforcement remedies against Vietnam. Separately, the EU was added to the Watch List for the first time, citing AI training-data, geographical-indications, and customs-enforcement concerns.

Minister of Trade Regulation No. 12 of 2026, signed by Trade Minister Budi Santoso and effective on its date of promulgation (29 April 2026), is the fifth amendment to Permendag 23/2023 on Export Policy and Regulation. It introduces a new discretionary authority — distinct from administrative sanctions — for the Director General of Foreign Trade to suspend issuance of, freeze, and revoke Business Licensing in the Export Sector (Perizinan Berusaha di Bidang Ekspor), and to suspend verification / technical-tracing services. Crucially, it institutionalises cross-ministerial initiating authority: other ministries and agencies may formally propose suspension / freezing / revocation, with proposals reviewed in coordination meetings convened under the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs or the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs. Decisions are issued via INATRADE / SINSW with automated notification to exporters. The stated rationale is protecting national interests, public welfare, government-programme implementation, and presidential directives — operationalised as safeguarding domestic supply of "certain goods" (palm oil, rice, sugar, mineral, and fertiliser categories cited in policy framing).

FinCEN issued an amendment to its June 30, 2025 special-measure order (90 FR 27770) that had prohibited US covered financial institutions from transmitting funds to or from CIBanco S.A., a Mexican multiple-banking institution previously designated as of primary money-laundering concern in connection with illicit-opioid trafficking. Effective April 16, 2026, the amendment authorizes transmittals of funds ordinarily incident and necessary for the Government of Mexico to liquidate CIBanco. The carve-out is narrow: the broader §2313a prohibition on US-side correspondent activity with CIBanco remains in force outside the liquidation channel.

Premier Li Qiang signed State Council Order No. 835 on 13 April 2026 promulgating the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Countering Foreign States' Unlawful Extraterritorial Jurisdiction" (20 articles), effective on the date of publication. The Regulations are the first State Council–level administrative regulation to operationalise the PRC's framework for identifying and countering foreign extraterritorial measures on a horizontal basis, complementing the 2021 Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and the March 2025 AFSL implementation regulations. Article 5 establishes a State Council–led inter-agency coordination mechanism; Article 6 vests the State Council legal affairs department (the Ministry of Justice in practice) with authority to identify "improper" foreign extraterritorial measures and to grant exemptions; Article 8 authorises a new Malicious Entity List targeting foreign organisations and individuals that "promote or participate in implementing" such measures, with nine countermeasure categories spanning visa denial, asset freezing, trade restrictions and fines; Article 11 codifies an exemption-application channel under which Chinese persons facing conflicting legal demands may request approval to comply with foreign measures within a defined scope; Article 14 authorises a private right of action for harmed Chinese citizens and organisations to sue parties enforcing such measures; and Article 18 elevates enforcement beyond administrative penalties by referencing potential criminal liability.

FinCEN issued an expanded Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) requiring money services businesses (MSBs) located in designated counties and ZIP codes across Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) on cash transactions between $1,000 and $10,000 — well below the standard $10,000 CTR threshold. The order took effect March 7, 2026 and runs through September 2, 2026; the FR notice (FR Doc. 2026-04641) was published March 10, 2026. The expansion adds Bernalillo, Doña Ana, and San Juan Counties in New Mexico and Maricopa and Pima Counties in Arizona to the geography covered by the prior September 10, 2025 GTO. Compliance date for newly-covered MSBs is April 6, 2026; reports must be filed within 30 days (extended from the standard 15-day CTR deadline). The instrument is part of the post-2024 US enforcement architecture targeting fentanyl-related illicit-finance flows through the US-Mexico border MSB channel.

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq issued Royal Decree 39/2026 on 1 March 2026, published in the Sultanate of Oman Official Gazette Issue 1638 on 8 March 2026 (effective the following day), enacting a new Statute of the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) and consolidating the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates under the unified OPAZ regulatory umbrella. The Statute restructures OPAZ's institutional architecture for administering Oman's 23 special economic zones, free zones, and industrial cities, expands OPAZ's supervisory and oversight powers — including project registration, licensing, permits, approvals, certificates, regulation of municipal services within zones — and mandates a single-window platform consolidating the full suite of zone-related services for investors. The decree is the institutional-governance complement to the substantive SEZ/FZ framework established by Royal Decree 38/2025 and operationalises the Vision 2040 economic-diversification strategy at the binding regulatory-authority layer, covering RO 22.4 bn (~USD 58 bn) in cumulative committed investment across the OPAZ-administered zone network.

Directive (EU) 2026/470 of 24 February 2026, published in the EU Official Journal on 26 February 2026 and entered into force on 18 March 2026, amends the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, Directive (EU) 2022/2464) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD, Directive (EU) 2024/1760). It raises CSRD scope thresholds to undertakings with more than 1,000 employees and more than EUR 450 million net turnover, raises CSDDD scope thresholds to entities with more than 5,000 employees and EUR 1.5 billion turnover (and non-EU entities with EUR 1.5 billion EU turnover), drops the requirement to adopt or put into effect a climate transition plan under CSDDD, and replaces reasonable-assurance with limited-assurance for CSRD reports. CSRD-related provisions must be transposed by 19 March 2027; CSDDD-related provisions by 26 July 2028.

At the Maiden Mining Local Content Summit held in Takoradi on 18 February 2026, Minerals Commission CEO Isaac Tandoh announced the revocation of more than 300 small-scale mining licences held fraudulently or left dormant, alongside a comprehensive regulatory reset covering all segments of Ghana's mining sector. The reform package includes the repeal of L.I. 2462 (which had permitted mining in forest reserves), introduction of a new medium-scale licensing tier, a sliding-scale gold royalty regime designed to increase state capture during high-price periods, and mandatory local-content thresholds across procurement, employment, and equity participation. Surface-mining operations will be required to use fully Ghanaian-owned contractors; underground-mining contracts must carry at least 50% Ghanaian ownership. The reforms structurally affect large-scale operators including Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, Zijin Mining, and Atlantic Lithium.

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (DOD, GSA, and NASA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on 17 February 2026 (FR Doc 2026-03065, 91 FR 7223) implementing Section 5949(a) of the NDAA FY2023 (Pub. L. 117-263), which bars executive agencies from acquiring electronic products or services containing semiconductor components designed, produced, or provided by SMIC, CXMT, YMTC, or their affiliates. A Part B prohibition extends the restriction to "critical systems" whose subsystems incorporate covered semiconductors regardless of COTS sourcing. The comment period closed 20 April 2026; proposed prohibitions take effect 23 December 2027.

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 9 February 2026 the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published a comprehensively revised enforcement and monetary-penalties guidance following its July–October 2025 public consultation. The update introduces a Settlement Scheme (20% penalty discount for subjects who agree not to contest OFSI's findings within 30 business days), an Early Account Scheme (up to 20% discount for legal persons providing a timely senior-attested factual account), a revised voluntary-disclosure framework (maximum discount cut from 50% to 30% and renamed to cover both prompt self-reporting and full cooperation), a four-level case-assessment seriousness matrix (severity × conduct), and fixed monetary penalties of £5,000 and £10,000 for information, reporting, and licensing offences. A planned legislative amendment (requiring primary legislation) will subsequently double the statutory civil monetary-penalty cap from £1m / 50%-of-breach to £2m / 100%-of-breach; in the interim the Policing and Crime Act 2017 caps remain in force. The revised guidance is the foundational enforcement architecture for all UK financial-sanctions programs (Russia, Iran, DPRK, Syria, Belarus, Myanmar, and 10+ additional regimes).

Germany's first cross-sector federal statute establishing minimum requirements for the physical protection and resilience of critical infrastructure operators (KRITIS) — sectors covered include energy, transport, water, food, ICT, financial services, health, and federal government infrastructure. Transposes EU Directive 2022/2557 (CER Directive on the resilience of critical entities). Identifies operators of critical facilities with Europe-wide significance, mandates national risk analyses for critical services, requires operator risk-management measures and creates a federal incident-reporting regime. Passed by the Bundestag on 29 January 2026, confirmed by the Bundesrat on 6 March 2026, published in BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 66 on 16 March 2026, in force from 17 March 2026.

Turkey's Public Procurement Authority published Communiqué No. 2026/1 in the Official Gazette (22 January 2026, Gazette No. 33145), raising the monetary thresholds and limits under Public Procurement Law No. 4734 by 27.67% — the December 2025 year-on-year change in the domestic producer price index (Yİ-ÜFE), applied per the Law's Article 67 mandatory annual indexation mechanism. The revised thresholds apply from 1 February 2026 through 31 January 2027, including an international-tender threshold of TL 18,734,124 for general-budget goods/services procurement and TL 686,924,429 for construction/works tenders. Global Trade Alert logged the update as a public-procurement-access intervention because raising the monetary bands widens the range of below-threshold tenders eligible for domestic-restricted procedures.

On 19 January 2026 the Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 29/2026/ND-CP, establishing the regulatory architecture for Vietnam's first domestic carbon trading exchange. The decree (6 chapters, 35 articles) governs registration, domestic coding, ownership transfer, custody, trading and settlement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission quotas and eligible carbon credits. The Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) operates the trading platform and the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC) handles registration, custody and settlement, with a pilot phase running through 31 December 2028 (no exchange-services fee) ahead of full commercialisation from 1 January 2029.

FinCEN issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) under 31 U.S.C. § 5326 requiring banks and money transmitters located in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, Minnesota (i.e., Minneapolis–St. Paul metro) to file reports with FinCEN on transactions of $3,000 or more where the beneficiary is located outside the United States. The order is effective February 12, 2026 through August 10, 2026 and is paired with a parallel Treasury/IRS audit and enforcement push targeting alleged government-benefits fraud (notably the federal child-nutrition program rings under prosecution in Minnesota since 2022). It is the second high-profile FinCEN GTO of the Trump 2.0 administration after the Southwest-border MSB GTO.