U.S.-EU Trade Agreement European officials are sounding a lot more enthusiastic than their American counterparts about the prospects for a trans-Atlantic free trade agreement. The Europeans bank on the ease of eliminating tariffs, which are relatively minor to begin with; the Americans see technical barriers as the intractable hurdle to increased trade flows.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht: A trans-Atlantic trade deal no later than mid-2014 that can "Get as close as possible to full tariff elimination for industrial and agricultural products." He called for a common platform on which to handle regulatory or technical differences, while keeping "politically realistic about what can be done where we have entrenched differences...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
