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For years, China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) appeared to validate one of the biggest geopolitical narratives in international trade: the steady erosion of dollar dominance.

When the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement entered into force on 1 August 2020, it was framed as an ambitious next-generation trade deal between the European Union and one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

After nearly two decades of negotiation, the European Union and India have reached a political conclusion on a landmark comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described it as the “mother of all trade deals” – and the scale of what has been agreed justifies that description. But the FTA itself is only one part of a much larger package of agreements.

The 2026 Iran war began 28 February when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacking Gulf shipping, energy infrastructure and US-allied Arab states.

Consider what happened to a mid-sized European electronics exporter in early 2025. Its goods were held at Rotterdam for nearly three weeks. The customs release was technically compliant. The Battery Passport was valid. The problem? The receiving member state’s verification system could not read and confirm the passport data in real time.

e EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, in force since 1 February 2019, has delivered measurable results: total bilateral trade grew 23.1% between 2018 and 2025.

The OECD’s new MAGIC database reveals industrial subsidies at their highest level relative to revenue since the 2008-09 financial crisis – concentrated in semiconductors, renewables, steel, shipbuilding, EVs, and advanced batteries.

The numbers look reassuring. In 2020, OLAF and its partners seized over 368 million contraband cigarettes destined for illegal sale in the EU. Joint operations across ten European countries have dismantled major smuggling networks. International training programmes stretch from Brussels to Cambodia.

For years, it was possible to treat the major compliance disciplines as parallel tracks. Customs sat with the trade team. Data protection sat with legal. Cybersecurity sat with IT. AI governance – to the extent anyone worried about it at all – sat with the innovation team, or with nobody in particular.