Introduction The US-Brazil trade relationship, one of the largest bilateral corridors in the Western Hemisphere, has been thrown into fresh uncertainty this month. On July 15, 2026, the US announced a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports under Section 301… Continue Reading →
Introduction At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, member states committed to one of the most significant defence policy shifts in the alliance’s history: raising defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. The commitment breaks down into 3.5%… Continue Reading →
Introduction In the space of a single decade, Vietnam has gone from a peripheral manufacturing economy to one of the most important trading partners of the United States. Bilateral trade now exceeds $200 billion annually, the country has become a… Continue Reading →
Introduction In April 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced sweeping new export controls on seven of seventeen rare earth elements – samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium – along with related magnets and processing technologies. The controls require… Continue Reading →
Introduction On April 2, 2026 – exactly one year after “Liberation Day” tariffs – President Trump signed two presidential proclamations that significantly reshape the tariff landscape for US imports. The first overhauls Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminium, and copper,… Continue Reading →
Introduction When investors think about the Strait of Hormuz, they think about oil. That is understandable. Roughly 20% of the world’s daily crude supply passes through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, and the 2026 closure has sent Brent… Continue Reading →
Introduction The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, has long been considered one of the most strategically important chokepoints in the global economy. Roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supply and a significant share of… Continue Reading →
Introduction In January 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made the first visit to Beijing by a Canadian leader in nearly a decade. He returned with a landmark trade agreement that stunned allies and angered Washington: a deal to open… Continue Reading →
Introduction After a quarter century of negotiations, the European Union and Mercosur finally signed a comprehensive trade agreement in January 2026. The deal creates the world’s largest free trade zone, covering a combined market of over 700 million consumers and… Continue Reading →
Introduction The economic relationship between Australia and China represents one of the most consequential and paradoxical partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. China is Australia’s largest trading partner by a considerable margin, absorbing nearly a third of all Australian exports and underpinning… Continue Reading →