Yankee Chutzpa Washington is reportedly asking the WTO for permission to impose retaliatory tariffs against China for the latter’s failure to reduce domestic agricultural subsidies. The U.S. had obtained a WTO Dispute Settlement panel’s concurrence last year that China’s domestic agricultural subsidies exceeded its commitments. China earlier said it would comply. However, the U.S. is showing real chutzpa in challenging China given that it has: 1) dramatically increased the subsidies it gives to its own farmers; and 2) has worked to shut down the very dispute settlement process it now seeks to exploit. Chlorinated Cars The British use of fake risks to block imports of American-made products is not limited to agricu...
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.