Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation The EU and U.S. are working on regulatory cooperation with the likely tool being mutual acceptance of substantial equivalence, whereby two different approaches both ensure products are safe for people and the environment. The problem is that the two sides vary in their definition of risk, and NGOs in Europe will deny that U.S. practices are anywhere close to equivalent. Actionable versus Implementable The WTO surprisingly anointed the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as the manager of its new Global Dialogue on Trade. The Dialogue is intended to curate what is and isn’t working in the international trading system along with how to improve the WTO. The ICC says it can deliver &ldqu...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
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...