USTR Katherine Tai convened the first of what may be a series of meetings with key WTO counterparts on reform of the dispute settlement process (DSP). The U.S. first began blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s Appellate Body (AB) during the Obama Administration and has continued that position ever since. The U.S. has been protesting what it asserts has been the AB’s creation of new trade obligations through its rulings rather than strict adherence to the actual language of existing trade agreements. There is somewhat of a dichotomy between the American political view toward the WTO AB and domestic courts of law. American progressives tend toward what is called non-originalism with the U.S. Constitution, meaning...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...