Trade Liberalization Wow Doha is dead, long live Doha; and Africa is a continental backwater -- all no more! Largely given up for dead, apparently the true believers in Geneva have continued to work and may have made some progress. The G-20, a consortium of rich and developing countries that share the attribute of overall economic size, has surfaced some proposals that seek to address real, trade impacting problems, and to do so as part of an early harvest package. One part addresses tariff rate quotas, synthetic protectionism tools intended to ease the burden of opening the market when simple tariffication was deemed too harsh. The problem with tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), as they are commonly administered, is that they are rarely filled...
With considerable fanfare—and few specifics—USDA last week announced its Great American Cotton Plan for 2026-2031. Secretary Brooke Rollins and industry leaders described the initiative as a comprehensive strategy to address the persistent challenges facing U.S. cotton production, d...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.