Misreading Airbus Tariffs President Trump is about to impose tariffs on European goods using WTO-sanctioned authority in the Airbus case. Europeans are understandably upset but some of the reactions are a misreading of the facts. Including these: • As usual, there is the argument that it hurts American consumers, which is true but if it were the only important impact no country would impose tariffs. This argument only reinforces the need for Brussels to reduce its border measures against U.S. products. • There is the nonsensical warning that it makes it ‘more complicated’ for the two sides to negotiate a solution to the Airbus/Boeing dispute. Negotiations happen due to mutual need and the side with greater lev...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
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.