U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer responded to critics today by noting that the erosion in American support for free trade was not rooted in ignorance but born of experience. Expect Action U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer responded to critics today by noting that the erosion in American support for free trade was not rooted in ignorance but born of experience. He said that years of talking has failed to remove the market distortions imposed by other countries, and it is now time for action. His prediction from Trump administration efforts: expect action, and expect change.Trade Deficits: Lighthizer gamely acknowledged that a majority of the U.S. trade reflected other factors but insisted that decades of deficits with...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.