Global Scans · Standards · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Improving standards are likely to be driven more by business and technological improvement than governments in the future. The latter will be under severe pressure to cut bureaucracy, speed policy making and improve their nation's productivity performance.

• [New] New global tax rules in an UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation are being negotiated until 2027. Greenpeace International
• [New] The British Standards Institution recently published PAS 2060 for digital product authentication, further institutionalizing advanced packaging norms. Market Data Forecast
• [New] Consumer Exposure to Contaminants in Food: FDA will conduct the next Food Safety and Nutrition Survey and continue studying exposure to certain heavy metals and per - and polyfluoroalkyl substances. www.hoganlovells.com
• [New] The EU says it has already put in place a Critical Entities Resilience (CER) Directive, requiring member nations to have a national resilience strategy and conduct risk assessments on disruptive incidents. The Register
• [New] According to Gartner, in order to enhance independence and guard against extraterritorial regulatory intrusion, 65% of governments globally will implement some sort of technical sovereignty standards by 2028. Glorium Technologies
• [New] The UK, together with Microsoft, other technology companies, academia, and experts, will develop a Deepfake Detection Evaluation Framework to assess detection tools against consistent standards and to identify gaps against real-world threats such as fraud and impersonation. Ilja Schlak InfoSec Blog
• [New] The earlier EV Availability Standard will be replaced with stronger greenhouse gas emissions standards, aiming to double the stringency of existing emissions by 2035 and set an aspirational goal of 75% EV sales by 2035 and 90% by 2040. cCarbon
• [New] Packaging providers face looming deadlines under new national rules that will introduce mandatory packaging standards across Australia. IT Brief Australia
• [New] The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned raw pet food poses a considerable risk to the public following testing that found products were often contaminated. Food Safety News
• [New] States could push bills to require watermarks, digital signatures, or cryptographic provenance tags on AI-generated audio / video, potentially coordinated through standards developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology or the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. MultiState
• [New] In the UK, new regulations coming in the first quarter of 2026 will require BNPL providers to be authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority, with stricter rules on affordability and clearer terms, aiming to protect consumers and ensure responsible lending. Grand Pinnacle Tribune
• [New] The PPWR aims to standardise rules around material recyclability, minimum recycled content and waste reduction across member states, which will have implications for businesses that operate in EU and UK markets. Yahoo Finance
• [New] Argentina will accept U.S. goods that meet U.S. or international standards without additional conformity assessments. GHY International - We Free Trade | One Border One Brok
• [New] China's 15th Five-Year Plan is expected to codify Level 4 autonomy standards, positioning China as an exporter of AEV technology, mirroring its dominance in batteries. InsightsMinds
• [New] The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have announced two proposed rules that threaten care for trans youth and the ability for hospitals nationwide to provide care for all their patients. Indivisible Greater Grand Rapids
• [New] The global political environment in the next ten years is expected to be a multipolar or fragmented order in which middle and great powers contest, set, and enforce regional rules and norms with greater risk of multipolarity without multilateralism. Democracy Without Borders
• [New] Integration into global supply chains, improved access to advanced technology and financing, and the consolidation of international transparency and compliance standards are expected to strengthen the competitiveness of Argentina's mining sector. Panorama Minero
• [New] The SEC is developing rules for tokenized real-world assets, including tokenized bonds and other securities that could be issued and traded on blockchain infrastructure. / Thailand MEXC
• [New] A multinational AI platform offering automated hiring tools across Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia would need to maintain multiple audit pipelines to satisfy varying national standards, adjust models for local fairness metrics, and implement real time logging for all high risk decisions. FrontOrb
• [New] If EU standards for bias detection in AI systems become more flexible, UK public sector organizations might adopt similar approaches to ensure interoperability with European partners. UKAuthority
• [New] Regulatory focus is intensifying on data security and AI risk, with DOJ cross-border data rules and NIST's draft AI guidance elevating national-security and enterprise-level responsibilities. Nixon Peabody

Last updated: 19 February 2026