Sino-American Trade War II U.S. President Donald Trump says he will impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of imports from China, perhaps this week. He is tempering his attack by cutting the tariffs from an earlier 25 percent to just 10 percent. The Chinese have responded by saying they may back out of bilateral negotiations intended to end the war and, lacking sufficient imports from America against which to counter-retaliate, Beijing will instead restrict the export of items needed in the supply chain by U.S. manufacturers. Undermining China Taiwan went through its regularly scheduled WTO trade policy review last week, but it did something quite irregular – it committed not to claim special and differential tr...
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...