Compiling this magazine proved remarkably intuitive. Since President Trump’s inauguration on 20 January 2025, ‘tariffs’ have emerged as the dominant topic across all discussions.

This focus has introduced an extensive vocabulary of supply chain restructuring – nearshoring, reshoring, friendshoring, and rightshoring – alongside a fundamental upheaval of the world order that has been established really since the aftermath of the Second World War, with the US a beacon of free trade. This development appears particularly striking given that we witnessed a similar ‘massive upheaval’ of supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic, when suppliers discovered critical weaknesses in their networks. The timing of this renewed reassessment warrants examination.

The tariff section of this magazine demonstrates considerable volatility in its content. The articles are structured chronologically, with publication dates for each article. Reading them in order offers an interesting narrative, painting a world in which as a single Truth Social post can trigger market turbulence and investor uncertainty: many of us have experienced the frustration of preparing presentation materials on tariffs and trade networks that become obsolete by the following morning.

The decision to feature digital transformation proved equally straightforward. From panel discussions to LinkedIn posts, artificial intelligence (AI) has achieved ubiquity in our professional discourse and operations. AI and digitalisation present fundamental trade-offs which have plagued everyday life: between efficiency and creativity, security and comprehensive analysis, regulatory requirements and innovation incentives. I anticipate that every magazine we publish this year will include a dedicated digitalisation section.

In journalism, I have found AI-generated content particularly challenging, not merely because it often produces homogeneous, diluted material, but because writers frequently fail to verify references. This practice has become especially problematic in trade publications, leading TFG’s AI checks to have grown far more strict in recent months. 

But enough about AI: a sentence I’m scared to utter. Issue 26’s digital discussion examines SMEs in China, cross-border payment systems, and receivables software, too.

While the digital transformation and US tariffs emerged as obvious themes, TFG’s recent catalogue has remained true to our global mandate, and particularly the focus on developing economies which we have been trying to expand. We have intensified our commitment to this international perspective in recent months. Our newly launched events division, TFG Events, will commence with three events this year and expand to five in 2026, covering trade, commodities, and the energy transition. The inaugural event in Geneva will convene over 250 participants from around the world, deliberately moving beyond a traditional London-centric audience to engage mid-tier suppliers globally.

Similarly, we have expanded our Editorial Board to include experts from Armenia to South Africa and everywhere in between. Recent board meetings have focused on identifying trends across their diverse industries, determining which educational segments remain underdeveloped, and addressing areas misrepresented in AI-powered search results as they increasingly replace traditional research methods. Readers can expect enhanced market-by-market analysis of supply chain finance, examination of unintended regulatory consequences, and exploration of cryptocurrency applications in trade finance coming from TFG in coming months.

The most valuable aspect of our expanded Editorial Board lies in their continuous assessment of geographic information gaps: which regions require greater trade finance coverage, and which remain underrepresented in media discourse. This perspective explains why this magazine extends beyond US-centric analysis to examine how global networks respond to animal disease outbreaks, political risk, and post-Brexit legislation, while also focusing on developments in Ukraine, Syria, Türkiye, and Middle East-Southeast Asia relationships.

This is an exciting time to be reporting on trade finance, commodities, treasury, payments, and the energy transition. Never before has trade news been so popular in mainstream media, so TFG are lucky to have the years of experience and wealth of expertise on the subject, as a result of our wonderful network. Furthermore, many organisations have rolled back discussions of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria: but we are covering them with more vigour than ever. I’m extremely grateful for all of our contributors and to the dynamic team here at TFG, and that we are pursuing our mandate of democratising trade finance with highly specialised, always free-to-access content.

Happy reading everyone!