SPS Litmus in TPP: U.S. aggies are pressing USTR to put an enforceability provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for the WTO-plus sanitary and phytosanitay (SPS) provisions being added to the agreement. However, other agencies (e.g. U.S. FDA) are balking at having their regulatory provisions subjected to the same kind of enforceability clause. Consequently, USTR reportedly will not introduce the concept at the latest round of TPP negotiations getting underway today in Singapore. USTR also will abstain from offering a rapid response option for when an SPS requirement is deemed unjustified. The SPS provisions in TPP will create a baseline for the transatlantic negotiations. Any agreement with Europe that lacks a WTO-plus dispute s...
Key Takeaways: Brazil confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina on 18 October, raising concerns about potential disruptions to poultry exports despite the outbreak being confined to a single facility thus far. Mexico and Malaysia have imposed nationwi...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
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.