World Perspectives

WTO Leadership Criteria; Self-Reliance

WTO Leadership Criteria Candidates to become the next leader of the WTO have begun taking turns before the body and pitching why they should be selected. Jesus Seade (Mexico) blamed a lack of WTO resources and said he would emphasize development. Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh (Egypt) blamed a lack of ideas of how to deal with Special and Differential Treatment, and the Appellate Body. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (Nigeria) advised rebuilding trust, ensuring disciplines on transparency and notifications, and ending export restrictions on food and medicine. There is a wide chasm in the WTO to bridge. The easiest approach for candidates is to talk about development. Most members are self-described developing countries and they are desperate to hang on to their...

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Summary of Futures

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From WPI Consulting

Forecasting developments in production agriculture

On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.

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