Faux Pas Technical level EU trade officials were meeting today to discuss how to put transatlantic trade relations back on a better course. The success of such an initiative was already in doubt but now French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has sunk the idea before it could even get past first base. With no surprise but with bad timing and adverse rhetorical impact, he gave assurance that no matter what, France will impose heavy taxes on America’s successful digital platforms this year. That was not on Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan’s agenda, though it is easily anticipated. Still, when one’s goal is to elevate a discussion, reminding the other party of your intent to punish is Trumpish. Or to use the French vernacular, a...
What You Need to Know Today: President Trump claimed the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was over, as both sides accused one another of violating the terms of the agreement. Commercial vessels are increasingly steering clear of the Strait of Hormuz as security risks escalate following Iran...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
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.