Reading Trump, Again The Trump administration’s announcement of a Section 232 investigation into automobile imports as a national security threat only reinforced the viewpoint of critics that he is a protectionist. However, the goal is not new duties on car imports but leverage to negotiate lower tariffs on U.S. auto exports. After all, he successfully got the Chinese to unilaterally lower their import duty on cars via trade threats. Too many, particularly in Europe, still do not understand his modus operandi. They continue to bristle over the instability and charge that he is disturbing established world order. After all, the system has worked well. Trump believes it has worked well for others, much better than it does currently fo...
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.