China Teed Up President Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week outside the APEC meeting. Bloomberg suggests there could be a quid pro quo with China giving Washington assistance on defense issues, stopping the flow of fentanyl, and increasing transparency. In exchange, the U.S. would lower tariffs, remove obstructions to technology transfers, and getting FDI flows back going into the Middle Kingdom. This is a pipedream. The White House is already saying the effort to reshape China has failed. Next week’s meeting will focus on stability, not deliverables. There will be discussions about hot topics, such as tempering Iran, but the goal is baby steps toward a calmer relationship. Reality in the House Newly installe...
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...