Worldwide Risk Landscape on July 8, 2025, is characterized by an ever-changing matrix of economic, environmental, and regulatory pressures. Highlights include rising tariff disputes, the necessity of improved disaster response and the ongoing development of audit readiness for small businesses.
This complex web of threats requires cities and nations to act preemptively to equip themselves with resilience in an ever more uncertain world.
Geopolitical Tariffs: A New Economic Front
July 8, 2025 – U.S. President Donald Trump today revealed new 25% import tariffs on Japan and South Korea effective Aug. 1 – if new trade deals are not reached. It comes after a 90-day hiatus on tariffs. It is part of a broader US trade policy announced in September 2025 targeting 14 countries and covering products ranging from 25% to 40%, in a bid to address what the US sees as trade imbalances.
The announcement has sent immediate ripples through global markets and diplomatic circles, accelerating hands on both Asian allies and US officials to step up negotiations in the days ahead. This new economic front adds another layer of complexity to the global risk landscape, which has the potential to disrupt global supply chains, weigh on investment decisions, and prompt retaliatory measures that further splinter the world’s commerce.
Disaster Planning As The New Climate Imperative
Outside the realm of trade, the global risk landscape is increasingly influenced by climate change, rendering disaster preparedness more essential than ever. The natural disasters increase without a pause, more and more frequent and severe ones, bringing a serious threat to the infrastructure, economy and human life.
Global losses of more than $200 billion were suffered in 2024, reveals recent data. Projections indicate that in 2030 alone, the world will experience some 560 disaster events, meaning a little over 1.5 moderate-to-large disasters per day. Echoing this urgent call, the World Resilient Recovery Conference (WRRC), which took place in Geneva in early June 2025, released its Ten Priority Investments to Ensure Preparedness for Resilient Recovery.
These actions are intended to bolster resilient recovery and enhance local community leadership in the face of climate-related events, underlining the importance of effective disaster preparedness in addressing more extreme weather and future global resilience. Details on the Ten Priority Investments can be found on ReliefWeb.
Audit Readiness: Navigating Evolving Compliance
Audit readiness is no longer only about technology, but it’s also about the changing environment and shifting regulations for businesses. One major trend is the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in auditing; AI streamlines the process of analysing large data sets, helps identify risks, and detects abnormalities, making the audit process more efficient and accurate.
This, in turn, requires companies to keep their data clean and available for audits driven by AI. Regulation is also becoming much stricter. The EU’s NIS2 Directive and DORA and operational resilience in 2025 The EU’s NIS2 Directive, designed to boost the cybersecurity of crucial sectors, and DORA, which stands for Digital Operational Resilience Act.
Which has been applied as of 17th January 2025 exclusively for the financial sector, are introducing strict requirements regarding the management of ICT risks and incidents. In addition, the growing significance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) compliance management systems in 2025, especially in Europe, requires extensive reporting and internal control.
This challenge is only made more difficult by a growing risk environment on the cybersecurity front because the surge in ransomware and supply chain attacks obviously requires strong internal controls for audit considerations.
The Interconnected Risk Matrix: Building Proactive Strategies
These separate risks are deeply interconnected. When we have geopolitical tension, like the tariffs we just said, and then we go directly to a globally intertwined supply chain, that global supply chain is more subject to the vagaries of natural disasters.
At the same time, the requirement for IT security and operating robustness to satisfy emerging audit and compliance requirements is simply escalated by these intricate interconnections. Thus, the construction of comprehensive risk management mechanisms that foresee and respond to such complex intractable threats is a key priority.
To withstand volatility, multinational companies should be proactive in their approaches. Driving international collaboration and technology adoption for resilience and robust compliance are key to long-term corporate resilience and global well-being in the global risk landscape of 2025 and beyond.
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