World Perspectives

Christmas Eve Policy Potpourri

Ship Subsidies: The SHIPS for America Act has been introduced in the U.S. Congress and is intended to boost the number of U.S. built ships. Currently, China builds over half the world’s ships, and over 90 percent are constructed in just three countries (China, South Korea, Japan). The U.S. builds just 0.1 percent of the world’s fleet. The Jones Act requires that half of American food aid be moved on U.S. flagged vessels. This reduces the amount of food aid because more money is spent on transport. The SHIPS act would give subsidies to agricultural exporters to offset higher shipping costs.Sliver of Truth: One outcome of the Trump era is the acknowledgement that there is always a sliver of truth. Economists generally think tariffs are distor...

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WPI Crop Progress and Conditions App (Updated 30 June)

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Summary of Futures

Sep 25 Corn closed at $4.0925/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.27/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Aug 25 Soymeal closed at $275.8/short ton, up $0.2...

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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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