All/Any Trade Agreements University of Sydney sociologist and foreign policy columnist Salvatore Babones calls the recently agreed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), “a China-style trade agreement: platitudinous and ineffective.” Aussies do not have a lot of warm feelings toward China right now but Babones notes that other than cutting already low tariffs, RCEP does little except appease internationalists who praise anything collectively written on paper. Among the issues barely mentioned or ignored in the agreement:
government subsidies government procurement intellectual property protection investor-state dispute settlement labor standards agriculture safeguards
The U.S. and Ecuador wi...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices extended their rally today, supported by several developments, including escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and growing concerns about supply disruptions. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove 50 perc...
Key Takeaways: The agricultural trade surplus has become a sizable deficit: the balance swung from a $40.1 billion surplus in 2011 to a $40.7 billion deficit in 2025. Imports kept growing while exports lost momentum: between 2020 and 2025, agricultural imports increased 45 percent, compa...
USDA released its October Cattle on Feed report Friday, showing 11.4 million cattle in feedlots with capacity for 1,000 head or more, slightly below last year. September placements were the lowest for the month since records began in 1996, marking the third consecutive month of placements sett...
Total Red Meat & Poultry September 2026 total red meat and poultry stocks totaled 1.97 billion pounds, down 1.4 percent from August despite typically increasing 0.8 percent during the month, and were 1.5 percent below September 2025 levels. The decline pushed total inventories to a new five...
