Hill Jam Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK affirm the work of other economists in finding that the imposition of tariffs harms both the foreign countries supplying goods and the nation erecting such market access barriers. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe affirmed that principle this week when he said, “Restrictive [import] measures are not in the interests of any country.” This raises the question as to why countries retaliated against Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs since their actions constituted self-harm. Political analysis in Washington this week predicts that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) will not allow votes on USMCA or an eventual trade agreement with Japan because of t...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
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.