Friday Trade Policy Shorts EU Procedural: Jurisdictional issues arise as the pesticide restrictions proposed in the EU fall under DG-Sante, but the funding to support the policy change is in the CAP managed by DG-Agri, with the later not invited to the key meetings. Plus, the EU Parliament’s ComAgri would presumably have some influence. Opt-Out: WTO Deputy Director General Anabel González highlights MC12 footnote 1, which for the first time enables member states the flexibility to opt-out of specific obligations otherwise adopted by consensus. Tough Job: Zulkifi Hasan was just appointed by Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo as the country’s chief trade negotiator. He will be the sixth trade negotiator since...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.