This week’s featured stories 31 August – 6 September 2026…
Europe’s federated democratic learning state
Europe is moving towards invoice-level electronic VAT reporting. Thiemo Fetzer argues that, with AI-assisted processing of the information contained in electronic VAT invoices, the tax system can become not just a compliance and revenue-raising instrument, but a protected intelligence map of the economy
Alleviating the rise of non-tariff barriers in ASEAN
ASEAN has established significant trade agreements, but intra-ASEAN non-tariff barriers are proliferating. Ang Siah Hwee argues that better coordination along the value chain among ASEAN members will not only alleviate these issues but also provide a bedrock for further strengthening ASEAN’s position in the world economy
Tan Kong Yam considers China’s 2018 ZTE crisis that exposed the gap between manufacturing strength and technological sovereignty, convincing Beijing that dependence on US-controlled technologies was a strategic vulnerability
Beyond export competitiveness: the fiscal risk of carbon tariffs
As carbon tariffs regimes expand, Diya Shah writes that export-dependent emerging economies with narrow trade bases and limited fiscal buffers could face wider economic pressures beyond the initial trade shock
The African Climate Foundation launches 2026-2030 strategy
The strategy reflects the ACF’s commitment to ensuring Africa’s climate transition is shaped by the continent’s own priorities, realities and development ambitions
Who builds, wins: the trillion-dollar contest for AI infrastructure
The race for artificial intelligence is rapidly shifting. Andreas Kuehn considers the contest for AI supremacy, that is no longer about who has the best models, but about who can fund, power, and scale the infrastructure behind them
Digital services exports are growing fast. Least developed countries are not keeping pace
Services are becoming central to production and exports. UNCTAD identifies gaps in data, infrastructure, skills and participation in trade negotiations
Programmable sovereignty: coordinated specialisation in AI
Alicia García-Herrero and Soumitra Dutta argue that programmable sovereignty offers states beyond the US and China a way to reduce AI dependence through shared compute and governance capacity
The storm before the September Xi-Trump summit: is there still room for hope?
The sanctions and countermeasures imposed by the United States and China in the run-up to the upcoming Trump-Xi summit this September are not signs that great power diplomacy has broken down. Xue Gong argues that the calibrated scope of the sanctions and countermeasures suggests that Washington and Beijing want pressure without rupture
Strategic investment boom risks leaving developing economies behind
As geopolitical tensions, economic security concerns and changing supply chains reshape international investment, developing economies are adapting their policies to attract investments and strengthen their contribution to development
The forces behind Asia’s ascent are shifting. Trade is fragmenting, energy security is a concern, populations are aging, and productivity gains are harder to sustain. Gita Bhatt says the question for policymakers is how to seize new opportunities to renew Asia’s economic growth
China’s property crisis: beyond the fall of Evergrande
The life sentence handed to Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin marks Beijing’s tougher stance on private capital, but China’s property crisis shows that disciplining past excesses cannot by itself restore economic confidence, Kalpit A Mankikar says
Europe’s long-term care gap: longevity risk and health uncertainty
Anna Bahí, Svend E Hougaard Jensen, Maria Catarina Louro and Alexandre Mendonça examine future EU long-term care, arguing that demand hinges more on health trajectories than ageing alone, making prevention and healthy ageing central
