March Wind Reports Tomorrow begins the month of March, which is apparently USTR publication month. It starts tomorrow with the agency issuing to Capitol Hill its annual Trade Policy Agenda report, which was preceded by USTR Ron Kirk's Congressional testimony on the subject today. Next will be issuance of the National Trade Estimates (NTE) report on trade barriers, and carve-outs from the NTE, the SPS and TBT reports. There was plenty of critique at today's hearing. "For a number of countries, almost every gap in coverage of firm unambiguous WTO commitments is being exploited to distort trade and investment," according to testimony from the National Foreign Trade Council, which is a relatively polite voice in the trade policy arena. "Whil...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.