Please Don’t Make Me Graduate Growing up is hard to do and least developed countries (LDC’s) are resisting losing their special trade benefits when their economies grow out of the LDC status. Presenting a litany of excuses in Geneva, they want LDC benefits extended even when they grow richer. Canada called it “backsliding” on WTO commitments but China, which insists it is still a developing country, curries favor with poorer countries by defending their beggar status. The WTO has morphed from being a trade liberalization organization to what many of its members now categorize as having development at its core. Jones Act Burden The EU is complaining about the U.S. Jones Act, which requires cargoes moved betwe...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.