Channeling HamiltonAlexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, encouraged the Tariff Act of 1789, the Tariff Act of 1790, and the Tariff Act of 1792. He used tariffs to fund the government and protect domestic industries from British exports. President-elect Trump has pledged large tariffs on China and more recently said he would impose more tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico until they stop sending fentanyl and migrants to the U.S. Current Treasury nominee Scott Bessent has a 3-3-3 policy: bring U.S. deficits down to 3 percent of GDP (currently 6.3 percent), lift economic growth to 3 percent (from 2.5 percent in 2023), and increase oil production by 3 million barrels/day. He has characterized the threat of tariffs...
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: Wholesale inflation was flat in July, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) unchanged versus expectations for a 0.2 percent increase. Core PPI rose 0.2 percent, also below expectations. The softer inflation data has reduced the odds of a September interest rate incre...
Key Takeaways: The U.S. sheep industry is contracting. Lamb output and producer participation have declined sharply. Imports now account for most U.S. lamb consumption. Their roughly 70 percent share raises concerns about domestic capacity and resilience. USTR’s referral carries substant...
Yesterday, the USDA released its monthly World Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), forecasting tighter beef and pork supplies and growing broiler supplies, resulting in a tighter red meat supply. Broiler production, however, continues to grow and is forecast to be up more than 3 percent. Beef...