World Perspectives

U.S. Trade Strategy in Africa; USDA Changes Tune; Pick Your Poison

U.S. Trade Strategy in Africa U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new Sub Saharan Africa strategy that focused on governance, security, rebounding from COVID and climate change, but not trade. An FTA with Kenya has been stalled, and South Africa is asking for elimination of Section 232 tariffs on its steel and aluminum. Meanwhile, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which also ignores enticements such as increased trade, is failing to attract more countries. The Administration’s “soft” policy approach is occurring at the same time countries may be growing cool to it. The Nikkei reports that Japan has lost interest in the themes of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), and Sustainable Development Goals...

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WASDE Corn - Jan 2026

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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.

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