World Perspectives
softs

NAFTA Updating, Morality, Conflicts

Updating NAFTA Major companies in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries have written the three political leaders (Obama, Harper and Pena Nieto) asking that the trade agreement be updated to reflect how much the international trade landscape has changed in the last 20-plus years. Actually, a key policy area that needs updating is sugar. Because NAFTA has very restrictive policies on sugar, production in North America has remained stagnant (see graph below) at the same time world demand has grown by 35 percent. Given the parity situation in all three countries, liberalizing the borders seems less risky now than it might have seemed back in 1992.Separately, Oxfam and other activists are upset that investors have respon...

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Transportation and Export Report - 13 February 2026

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: China Headlines and Technical Buying Lift CBOT

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Sovereignty and Competitiveness; USMCA Battle

Sovereignty and Competitiveness So-called food sovereignty has animated European politics for decades. Now there is AI sovereignty because English is annoying or a national security risk. Taxes, regulations, and fines are thrown at dominant foreign companies to the point that Bloomberg says som...

Transportation and Export Report - 13 February 2026

U.S. grain transportation markets are slowly recovering from the shocks of bitter cold weather and low water levels on the Mississippi River System and from the surge in export demand. The latter is also causing strong rallies in ocean freight markets, particularly in the Atlantic basin. With g...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: China Headlines and Technical Buying Lift CBOT

Key Market Developments Markets head into Friday’s CPI report expecting a 0.3 percent month-over-month increase in both headline and core inflation, keeping year-over-year readings near +2.5 percent. That matters — but perhaps not as much as it would have a few weeks ago. This week&...

Sovereignty and Competitiveness; USMCA Battle

Sovereignty and Competitiveness So-called food sovereignty has animated European politics for decades. Now there is AI sovereignty because English is annoying or a national security risk. Taxes, regulations, and fines are thrown at dominant foreign companies to the point that Bloomberg says som...

livestock

Livestock Round Up: Cattle Margins and Distribution

The recent February World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report forecast beef production to increase in 2026 due to greater slaughter of steers and heifers, increased cow slaughter, and heavier dressed weights, all of which will provide some relief to the beef market. Also, th...

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From WPI Consulting

Infrastructure investment due diligence

On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.

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