Varun Chandra advises Keir Starmer on trade negotiations including AI investment. Varun Chandra advises Keir Starmer on trade negotiations including AI investment. Exclusive: Varun Chandra's talks with Google, Meta, Apple and others raise fears of'lobbying behind closed doors' An influential government adviser close to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves held 16 undisclosed meetings with top US tech executives, the Guardian can reveal. The No 10 business aide Varun Chandra discussed regulatory changes, AI and Donald Trump's second administration with tech corporations during confidential meetings between October 2024 and October 2025. In one meeting he offered to help a top executive meet the prime minister directly.

London RegTech firm's cutting-edge AI enables financial institutions to validate tax forms in seconds. Success in the US has led to surging revenues and workforce growth of 46% this year despite the pandemic. The UK recent concluded its fourth round of trade negotiations with the US and in an ever-changing regulatory landscape, TAINA Technology's innovative software expedites compliance, enabling businesses to validate tax forms in seconds and lower costs. For many firms, RegTech: regulatory technology, has become key to ensuring compliance across jurisdictions at reduced costs. Using machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence in which computer algorithms improve through experience, TAINA's platform cuts costs by 84% by reducing time spent validating tax forms by over 75% and tax form rejection rates by over 85%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) stands to have a transformative impact on international trade. Already, specific applications in areas such as data analytics and translation services are reducing barriers to trade. At the same time, there are challenges in the development of AI that international trade rules could address. General AI refers to systems that can self-learn from experience with "humanlike breadth" and surpass human performance on tasks. General AI raises broad existential concerns, but remains a technology in the distant future.

BUENOS AIRES – Artificial intelligence can facilitate trade negotiations and add one additional percentage point of growth to Latin American and the Caribbean economies, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The study – put together by the IDB's Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL) – predicts artificial intelligence could boost regional GDP in the mid-term to 4 percent from current 3 percent projections. Brazil, for instance, could grow 4.1 percent a year instead of 3.2 percent. Colombia's economy could hit 4.5 percent growth instead of 3.7 percent. Overall, economic growth of countries that embrace artificial intelligence is expected to be 25 percent higher, on average, than those that do not, the report finds.

With international trade agreements becoming increasingly complex, UNCTAD is working with the Brazilian arm of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Brazil) to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help trade negotiators, especially those representing less powerful nations. "Artificial intelligence could help reduce the complexity of information and level the playing field between big and small players in trade negotiations," said Bonapas Onguglo, in charge of UNCTAD's trade analysis branch. A comparison of the 1985 US-Israel trade deal with the one that the United States and Singapore signed in 2004 shows how much such agreements have evolved. AI assists in trade negotiations The 1985 deal has less than 8,000 words and contains just 22 articles, mostly dedicated to tariffs, agricultural restrictions, import licensing and rules of origin – what Harvard economist Dani Rodrik calls conventional trade topics . While these issues are also covered in the US-Singapore deal, most of its 20 chapters and 70,000 or so words deal with other topics such as anti-competitive business conduct, e-commerce, intellectual property, investment rules, labour rights and the environment.

The 1985 deal has less than 8,000 words and contains just 22 articles, mostly dedicated to tariffs, agricultural restrictions, import licensing and rules of origin – what Harvard economist Dani Rodrik calls conventional trade topics . While these issues are also covered in the US-Singapore deal, most of its 20 chapters and 70,000 or so words deal with other topics such as anti-competitive business conduct, e-commerce, intellectual property, investment rules, labour rights and the environment. AI has already proved its worth in the comparable field of law. A two-month test pitting 20 lawyers against LawGeek's AI showed that humans were no match for a robot in spotting risks within the legal documentation for non-disclosure agreements – deals meant to protect confidential information such as new manufacturing processes and marketing schemes. In terms of accuracy, the lawyers scored an average of 85%, compared to the robot's 94%.