World Perspectives

Biden Trade Policy; Solution for Africa; “Natural” Chemicals

Biden Trade Policy Some of Washington’s top trade policy wonks opined last week on what they think should be the policy approach of President-Elect Joe Biden. Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics yearns for trade policy to return to low visibility. He conceded that in the past, the adjustment costs to free trade were largely ignored, whereas under Trump that erroneously became the sole focus. Dartmouth University economist Doug Irwin characterized Trump trade policy as instinct and reactions that lacked an underlying and thoughtful strategy. He argues for a constructive approach that aligns objectives with the proper policy instruments.  Claude Barfield of the American Enterprise Institute notes the c...

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From WPI Consulting

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.

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