Trade Negotiator Frustrations Much of the media coverage of the U.S. – China Phase One trade agreement has centered around Beijing’s commitment to fixed amounts of purchases of goods, services, energy and agriculture. But for U.S. trade negotiators, the focus should be on the technical obligations they’ve extracted from the Chinese. After all, it has been the technical barriers to trade that has most hindered sales. It is also the reason why the agreement is nearly 100 pages long. For example, USTR is proud of getting the Chinese commitment to take no more than two years to approve new GMO events. The section on DDGS is illustrative of the details in the agreement. In allowing DDGS imports from the U.S., China shall:...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
Key Takeaways: Texas illustrates the assumptions underlying the 2025 FMMO reform; Idaho exposes their limitations. The Southwest order blend (roughly 27 percent Class I, 32 percent Class III and 31 percent Class IV) exposes Texas producers to every lever USDA adjusted, with a near-neutral proj...
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.