Meat Loaf Wisdom U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai concluded a U.S. led meeting of APEC trade ministers in Detroit today without an agreed joint statement. Russia and China blocked a draft statement that included a condemnation of Russia’s war on Ukraine. She said she hopes a joint statement can be agreed to when APEC leaders meet in San Francisco in November. She now switches to an IPEF meeting in Detroit over this holiday weekend. Progress has been made on some technical text but that is not enough for the U.S. business community. They are still complaining about the lack of tariff relief and the technical changes to date leave in place too many technical barriers to U.S. farm and industry exports to the region. Ambassador Tai mi...
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
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.