Rayyan Ahmed

The European Commission’s proposed new EU Public Procurement Act could mark an important shift away from lowest-price contracting. But unless human rights and environmental due diligence become a firm requirement, the reform may struggle to prevent European public money from supporting labour abuses and environmental harm in global supply chains. Public procurement rarely attracts the same attention as major climate or trade legislation.

The trade relationship between the United States and Canada is entering one of its most difficult periods in decades. President Donald Trump is now moving beyond traditional tariffs and using import bans, government procurement restrictions and further tariff threats to increase pressure on Ottawa. The latest measures target Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles, with the restrictions scheduled to take effect on September 29.

he European Union’s relationship with China is entering a more confrontational phase. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that Brussels could use the bloc’s full range of trade-defence instruments if negotiations with Beijing fail to produce meaningful progress on the EU’s enormous trade imbalance. The warning is significant because Brussels is no longer presenting the China problem simply as a disagreement over tariffs, market access or individual products.