Member News, News

AlixPartners | AI Shopping Agents: Customer Gains, Retailer Gains, and What Retailers Stand to Lose

In our first article in this series, What AI shopping agents will mean for customers and retailers, we outlined six imperatives retailers must act on to stay competitive in a fast-evolving landscape. As of late 2025, Amazon had launched Buy for Me, Google had rolled out agentic checkout with Gemini, and OpenAI’s Instant Checkout had gone live with partners including Etsy, Shopify, and Walmart. 2026 has seen agentic e-commerce go mainstream, with the market expected to be worth $236 billion by...

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OECD | Steel Excess Capacity Continues to Weigh on Global Markets, with Subsidies Increasingly Undermining Fair Competition

Global steel excess capacity continues to grow, driven by increasing subsidies in some major non-OECD steel-producing economies, while efforts to restore fair competition are increasingly undermined by circumvention of trade measures aimed at levelling the playing field, according to a new OECD report. The OECD Steel Outlook 2026 projects global steel excess capacity to reach 745 million tonnes by 2028, exceeding the OECD’s current steel production by 319 million tonnes. Planned capacity additions of up to 139 million tonnes through 2028 represent...

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EU Council | Steel Overcapacity: Council Greenlights New Rules to Protect the EU Steel Market From Global Overcapacity

The Council today adopted a regulation establishing a new framework to protect the EU steel market from the negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity, as outlined in the Steel and Metals Action Plan of 2025. The new rules will replace the current EU steel safeguard measure, which expires on 30 June 2026, ensuring continued protection for the EU steel sector. " Steel is indispensable to Europe's industrial base, its green transition and its security. With today's adoption, the EU is putting...

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Wilson Sonsini | European Commission Publishes Proposal for Act to Reduce Reliance on Foreign Cloud and AI

On June 3, 2026, the European Commission (EC) released its first draft of a proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (Proposal or CADA), marking a significant step forward in the EU’s efforts to strengthen its digital infrastructure and reduce strategic dependence on non-EU cloud providers. Through the Proposal, the EC aims to strengthen EU cloud, AI, and computing capabilities, and introduces criteria to help public-sector bodies assess whether third-party cloud services are sufficiently protected from foreign control. The Proposal lays the groundwork for a...

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ECB | Strengthening Operational Resilience for the Age of AI

Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference 2026 Thank you for inviting me to speak today. Europe is facing a set of unprecedented challenges. The geopolitical environment is becoming increasingly fragmented. Europe remains overly dependent on external providers for energy, technology, security and key financial infrastructures such as payment systems and capital markets. Reducing these dependencies is no longer a...

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Trepp | Industrial Sector Sees Record Leasing Activity in Q1

The national industrial sector recorded 249.8 million square feet of leasing activity in the first quarter, up 14% from a year ago, putting the sector on track for a record year of leasing, according to CBRE. But absorption, or the leasing of previously vacant space, totaled just 43.2 million sf in the first quarter, well below total leasing volume, suggesting that much of the leasing activity came from tenants renewing leases or moving between buildings rather than expanding their footprints. At...

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Troutman Pepper Locke | New Sheriff at the Port: President Trump’s Executive Order Rewrites the Rules on Customs Enforcement

Key Points President Donald Trump’s “Strengthening Customs Enforcement” executive order directs CBP to overhaul customs enforcement, raising IOR eligibility thresholds and bond requirements for all entries. The executive order draws a bright line between “U.S. IORs” and “foreign IORs,” imposing stricter eligibility, bonding, and informal entry restrictions on foreign IORs and tying benefits to CTPAT validation. CBP must implement a “good standing” regime and overhaul the IOR registry within 180 days, using compliance history and customs liability payment records...

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Greenberg Traurig | US Trade Update: IEEPA Refund Litigation; Section 232 Modifications; New Section 301 Actions on Forced Labor, Vietnam, and Brazil; Customs Enforcement

The Trump administration has recently made several trade policy and tariff litigation announcements affecting companies importing goods into the United States and downstream buyers: (1) the Department of Justice appealed the Court of International Trade (CIT)’s “universal” IEEPA refund order and submitted a filing to the CIT announcing that only unliquidated entries and entries within 90 days post-liquidation would be processed for refunds through the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system; (2) the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)...

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IMF |Trade Cooperation in an Age of Geopolitics

Geopolitical rivalry does not end the need for trade cooperation, but the multilateral system must adapt. For decades, the global economy rested on the premise that international trade was beneficial despite geopolitical differences. The rules of the multilateral trading system, established with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 and embedded in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, were crafted for a world where governments rarely used trade to achieve geopolitical goals. That world is now...

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McCann Fitzgerald | EU Inc. – A Game‑Changer for European Founders?

“EU Inc. by its very name speaks the language of investors…” (EU Commissioner Michael McGrath, 18 March 2026). The European Commission announced its welcome proposal for EU Inc, the centrepiece of its wider plans for a ‘28th regime’, which looks to be a game-changer for European founders, entrepreneurs and investors.  The proposal envisages a new (optional) type of corporate vehicle which would benefit from a swift incorporation process, streamlined administration and a ‘digital by default’ set of rules. At a glance: Key benefits Underpinned by key principles such as ‘once...

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