Doth Protest Too Much: China criticized Japan for its decision to host a NATO liaison office in Tokyo. It accused Japan of dismantling trust and stability in the region. U.S. troops are already stationed in Japan and NATO is no threat to China unless it is planning its own disruptions in the region. Geopolitical Non-reciprocals: The U.S. Ambassador to South Africa warned Pretoria that its trading benefits under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) are at risk if it fails to maintain neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner, but the U.S. is a close second and the G-7 overall readily outweighs Russia and China. Green Deal Threatened: Greens and liberals are concerned that the c...
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters its mandated six-year review on 1 July. The original intent of the review is outlined in Article 34.7, which obligates members to: Provide recommendations and decide on appropriate actions. Extend the USMCA for another 16 years and meet aga...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
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.