World Perspectives

WTO Epiphany; Trump Treats Ag Horribly

WTO Epiphany Keith Rockwell is a trade policy professional. The lead spokesman for the WTO for many years, he was a cheerleader for the new world order and the opportunities it presented. He emphasized the importance of reaching agreement at each successively failed WTO ministerial. But Rockwell left the WTO almost three years ago and is both free to speak and has the benefit of hindsight. He now echoes what many others have long observed. Rockwell now acknowledges that the problem with the WTO is that it is controlled by developing countries, which self-designate that status and now view the associated privileges of being "developing" as entitlements. Thus, there has been no major trade agreement since the founding of the WTO. All major ag...

Related Articles

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 29 January)

Ocean Freight Comments - 17 January 2025By Matt HerringtonIn the past month since WPI last provided our freight market commentary, dry bulk ocean freight rates have not done much at all. The holiday doldrums left markets to drift sideways/lower with slack cargo demand and little other excitemen...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Wheat, Corn Lead CBOT Higher; Cattle Correct Ahead of Inventory Report

The CBOT was mostly higher on Wednesday due to the bullish influences of wheat and corn. The two grains saw support from Black Sea and South American weather impacts, respectively, with production outlooks for both regions falling. That put futures in a bullish mood with funds expanding net lon...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.97/bushel, up $0.1175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.625/bushel, up $0.1725 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $10.605/bushel, up $0.155 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $309.8/short ton, up $8.2 from y...

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 29 January)

Ocean Freight Comments - 17 January 2025By Matt HerringtonIn the past month since WPI last provided our freight market commentary, dry bulk ocean freight rates have not done much at all. The holiday doldrums left markets to drift sideways/lower with slack cargo demand and little other excitemen...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Wheat, Corn Lead CBOT Higher; Cattle Correct Ahead of Inventory Report

The CBOT was mostly higher on Wednesday due to the bullish influences of wheat and corn. The two grains saw support from Black Sea and South American weather impacts, respectively, with production outlooks for both regions falling. That put futures in a bullish mood with funds expanding net lon...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.97/bushel, up $0.1175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.625/bushel, up $0.1725 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $10.605/bushel, up $0.155 from yesterday's close.  Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $309.8/short ton, up $8.2 from y...

Transatlantic Uncertainty

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that the Administration is still on track to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico this Saturday, unless they take undefined steps on immigration and drugs, and the President is still thinking about imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chin...

Image
From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up