A bipartisan group of U.S. Congressmen are asking USTR Katherine Tai and the Biden Administration to mount a WTO challenge to India’s use of agricultural subsidies for wheat and rice. Washington has issued multiple counter-notifications to the WTO that highlight how much India is understating its level of subsidization. Instead of meeting its 10 percent de minimus limit, the U.S. contends that 94 percent of the rice crop value is subsidized and 81 percent of the wheat. India might argue that the subsidies are necessary to improve food security but much of the increases in production has been diverted into exports. Rice suppliers Thailand and Vietnam should especially want to join a U.S.-led challenge to New Delhi. India&r...
What You Need to Know Today: The September Cattle on Feed report was strongly bullish, with both the 1 September on-feed inventory and August placements coming in well below average expectations and below the bottom of their respective pre-report estimate ranges. China continues to buy U...
Given yesterday’s headlines, today’s market action may not be what many expected. The dollar is little changed, crude oil is pulling back and stocks are trading higher. Crude may be the biggest piece of today’s reversal. Saudi Arabia is offering additional crude to Asian buyer...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.