There is widespread support in Europe for the new revisions to the General Food Law, but research may prove the risk that the critics have warned about. Under the new law, the European Food Safety Authority must be much more transparent about the information it uses to determine the safety of chemicals. Critics of the change warned that competitors would simply copy the propriety information, undermining the competitiveness of European chemical firms. Indeed, research (see NBER Working Paper No. 25401) by academics at four different institutions found that mandatory disclosure of chemicals allowed competitors to catch up with industry leaders. However, the result was not just greater competition but a large reduction in research at the ori...
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...
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.