Abe-Trump Tête-à-Tête Donald Trump wants a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan, only rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a fallback position and if it includes “substantial improvements” over the one he exited. Meanwhile, Shinzö Abe does not want a bilateral FTA with the U.S., preferring that it rejoin the TPP. Because the TPP 11 found agreement without the U.S., Trump has very little leverage to now demand substantial changes as a condition to returning. The only leverage he does have is over Japan’s security needs and trade dependency on the U.S. market. Trump likes Abe, however, and this week’s meetings between the two will involve some tough choices. Milk...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.