Trade Policy Confusion In its annual report to Congress yesterday on trade relations with China, USTR asserted that, “China has a poor record when it comes to complying with WTO rules” and suggested the Biden Administration is looking for a new strategy to address the Middle Kingdom’s unfair trade practices. As noted by others, the report offered no details on a new plan and, in the meantime, the U.S. will continue to talk to China and to allies. If China is not complying with the WTO, then the strategy ought to be filing dispute settlement cases. More accurate is to say that the WTO is ill-equipped to address state-led economies. Donald Trump understood this conundrum and took a more kinetic approach to China. Like Puti...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: Market attention is shifting toward Tuesday’s USDA WASDE report, with analysts anticipating a modest reduction in U.S. corn production estimates and an increase in soybean production. The report could provide fresh direction for grain markets as traders reass...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s forecasts call for physical U.S. soybean crushing margins to weaken over the next four months and average $4.44/bushel by late February, while CBOT futures margins should rise modestly to about $2.40/bushel. A key catalyst for this is the expectation that U.S...
The election is over – for the most part. Counting is still underway in some states, including Alaska, where a ranked-choice voting system is in place for the Senate race, and Mississippi, as well as in some House districts. But as of now, Democrats have secured at least 54 Senate seats,...