Jones Act: The EU is correctly arguing that the Jones Act, an American law restricting intra-U.S. shipping be restricted to domestically built and operated ships is trade distorting. Washington argues its original purpose, to ensure the supply of domestic ships for national security, remains a fact. Europe would have more of a case if it contributed more to keeping global shipping lanes free. Despite its large economy, EU based navies retain two-thirds less tonnage than the U.S. Navy. They operate no cruisers or destroyers and have very few blue water ships. Hardly a strong position to be arguing against a U.S. defense policy that spares Europe the cost. China Message: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she will go to China ag...
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...
Key Takeaways: Drought remains a major threat to global agricultural production, particularly in regions with limited rainfall and growing water scarcity. Commercially available drought-tolerant traits in corn, soybeans, and wheat have generally delivered modest yield improvements, limiting th...
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.