SPS Minus Minus U.S. agriculture groups responded to a U.S. request for comments on what should be the objectives in negotiating a transatlantic trade agreement, and their focus was on the usual suspect – sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers. Europe’s current technical barriers are expected to become worse as Brussels gets ever more prescriptive and non-science based. For example, the EU’s adoption of hazard as a standard for assessing the safety of pesticides and not just risk (possible versus actual danger) threatens an already declining sale of U.S. foods in Europe. The American farm groups recommend European adoption of the SPS++ provisions in the new North American trade agreement (USMCA). At this juncture, the...
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.