A draft EU-backed study of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) oddly concludes that the pact will actually raise the cost of food and promote unhealthy consumption because the cost of sugar, tobacco and alcohol will go down. Politics at AB The U.S. is being criticized for disapproving the reappointment of Seung Wha Chang as a jurist on the WTO’s Appellate Board (AB). Supporters of Chang warn that the U.S. is threatening the independence and impartiality of adjudication as well as politicizing the body. Washington’s complaint against Chang is that rather than interpreting trade law, he has been “legislating from the bench” – creating precedent with no underlying statutory credence. In other words, it is Chang that is...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...