The Biden Administration went through a rapid succession of descriptors for its trade policy toward China before settling on de-risking. It initially called for decoupling but switched to re-shoring. This upset allies and so next it tried friend-shoring. It has stuck with de-risking for a while now and it has influenced trade flows. Imports from China have declined, with substitution particularly from Vietnam and Taiwan. Some argue that China’s exports to Mexico, Vietnam and other countries have surged and that U.S. imports continue from China but in an indirect form. What is striking is how U.S. imports from some of the same trading partners have changed over the period. Keeping in mind that U.S. food imports from many of thes...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.
A federal appeals court paused a USITC ruling against President Trump’s use of Section 122 to impose 10-percent global tariffs. A bipartisan group of 80 House members asked USTR to investigate specialty crop imports from Mexico for unfair trade practices. India notified the WT...