Diverging Data on Jobs
As WPI has reported many times over the past two years, conventional economic data is difficult to decipher because the impact of COVID and its aftermath were anything but conventional. It was concurrently an increase in consumer spending power and demand, while a slow-down, to shut down in eco...
Challenging Mexico GMO Policy; Inequitable Ethanol Policy; Ties to Taiwan
Challenging Mexico GMO Policy The U.S. formally requested USMCA dispute settlement consultations with Mexico over its proposed ban on GMO corn. The move comes months after initiating informal discussions that have gone nowhere. Former Mexican agricultural trade negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos ha...
SNAP and Meat and Poultry Retail Demand
USDA released its updated food expenditure series this morning. Going into the farm bill and SNAP debate – and in light of the debt ceiling deal which makes some reforms to SNAP – the trend line of government spending on consumer food purchases is noteworthy for its steep incre...
Deforestation Proxy; Perpetual Crisis; Perpetual Costs
Deforestation Proxy It was revealed this week that Brazil is exporting 120 KMT of soybeans to the U.S. and the State Department immediately announced that the Biden Administration will use trade policy to reverse deforestation, including imposing import restrictions on goods where production im...
Siloing of U.S. Agriculture; TTC Happy Talk; I{EF Spotlight
Siloing of U.S. Agriculture California state legislators saw the Supreme Court’s green light on Prop 12’s Sacramento driven animal welfare standards and ramped it up this week. They declared a ban on the use of some specific chemical additives in food products (coloring dye Re...
IPEF Blah, TTC Heat; African Woes
IPEF Blah, TTC Heat USTR Katherine Tai achieved agreement over the weekend on language focused on supply chains in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. However, it is all a bit boring. Basically, countries agreed to a process to talk and “work together” on issues. Mea...
Memorial Day Holiday
U.S. financial markets are closed on Monday, 29 May and consequently there will be no Ag Perspectives report on that day. WPI's analysis reports will resume on 30 May. We wish everyone a delightful three-day weekend...
Meat Loaf Wisdom; Enemy of My Enemy
Meat Loaf Wisdom U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai concluded a U.S. led meeting of APEC trade ministers in Detroit today without an agreed joint statement. Russia and China blocked a draft statement that included a condemnation of Russia’s war on Ukraine. She said she hopes a joint stat...
Wetting Down Party; DeGrowth for All
Wetting Down Party Farmers, real estate developers, and industry are celebrating a Supreme Court ruling that limits the government’s regulation of certain wetlands. The conservative majority ruled that the navigable waters of the U.S. means a continuous surface water connection – th...
Europe’s Bad Boy; Africa’s Bad Country
Europe’s Bad Boy Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not well liked in Brussels, nor in Kyiv. Not only does he rankle Western Europe’s democratic virtues, but he also appears to side with Vladimir Putin. Yesterday he said that Ukraine has no chance of winning the war against Ru...
USMCA Action and Future; Geopolitics Drives Trade Policy
USMCA Action and Future Washington invoked the USMCA’s rapid-response mechanism against Mexican worker rights violations for an eighth time. The Biden Administration is following U.S. organized labor’s requests as they see their manufacturing jobs shifting to Mexico’s lower wa...
Follow the Money
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres attended the weekend’s G-7 summit in Hiroshima. At the meeting, he suggested the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods global financial institutions need to be updated. He correctly noted that their design was based on the dominant countries right...
Diverging Data on Jobs
As WPI has reported many times over the past two years, conventional economic data is difficult to decipher because the impact of COVID and its aftermath were anything but conventional. It was concurrently an increase in consumer spending power and demand, while a slow-down, to shut down in eco...
Challenging Mexico GMO Policy; Inequitable Ethanol Policy; Ties to Taiwan
Challenging Mexico GMO Policy The U.S. formally requested USMCA dispute settlement consultations with Mexico over its proposed ban on GMO corn. The move comes months after initiating informal discussions that have gone nowhere. Former Mexican agricultural trade negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos ha...
SNAP and Meat and Poultry Retail Demand
USDA released its updated food expenditure series this morning. Going into the farm bill and SNAP debate – and in light of the debt ceiling deal which makes some reforms to SNAP – the trend line of government spending on consumer food purchases is noteworthy for its steep incre...
Deforestation Proxy; Perpetual Crisis; Perpetual Costs
Deforestation Proxy It was revealed this week that Brazil is exporting 120 KMT of soybeans to the U.S. and the State Department immediately announced that the Biden Administration will use trade policy to reverse deforestation, including imposing import restrictions on goods where production im...
Siloing of U.S. Agriculture; TTC Happy Talk; I{EF Spotlight
Siloing of U.S. Agriculture California state legislators saw the Supreme Court’s green light on Prop 12’s Sacramento driven animal welfare standards and ramped it up this week. They declared a ban on the use of some specific chemical additives in food products (coloring dye Re...
IPEF Blah, TTC Heat; African Woes
IPEF Blah, TTC Heat USTR Katherine Tai achieved agreement over the weekend on language focused on supply chains in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. However, it is all a bit boring. Basically, countries agreed to a process to talk and “work together” on issues. Mea...
Memorial Day Holiday
U.S. financial markets are closed on Monday, 29 May and consequently there will be no Ag Perspectives report on that day. WPI's analysis reports will resume on 30 May. We wish everyone a delightful three-day weekend...
Meat Loaf Wisdom; Enemy of My Enemy
Meat Loaf Wisdom U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai concluded a U.S. led meeting of APEC trade ministers in Detroit today without an agreed joint statement. Russia and China blocked a draft statement that included a condemnation of Russia’s war on Ukraine. She said she hopes a joint stat...
Wetting Down Party; DeGrowth for All
Wetting Down Party Farmers, real estate developers, and industry are celebrating a Supreme Court ruling that limits the government’s regulation of certain wetlands. The conservative majority ruled that the navigable waters of the U.S. means a continuous surface water connection – th...
Europe’s Bad Boy; Africa’s Bad Country
Europe’s Bad Boy Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not well liked in Brussels, nor in Kyiv. Not only does he rankle Western Europe’s democratic virtues, but he also appears to side with Vladimir Putin. Yesterday he said that Ukraine has no chance of winning the war against Ru...
USMCA Action and Future; Geopolitics Drives Trade Policy
USMCA Action and Future Washington invoked the USMCA’s rapid-response mechanism against Mexican worker rights violations for an eighth time. The Biden Administration is following U.S. organized labor’s requests as they see their manufacturing jobs shifting to Mexico’s lower wa...
Follow the Money
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres attended the weekend’s G-7 summit in Hiroshima. At the meeting, he suggested the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods global financial institutions need to be updated. He correctly noted that their design was based on the dominant countries right...