MFN Conflicts China announced 859 tariff lines that will see reduced import duties effective 1 January but these will not solely benefit the U.S. Governments can punish specific foreign countries and their suppliers of goods but, without the exclusivity of a free trade agreement, it is much more difficult under the WTO to single out a specific foreign supplier for privileged access into a country. Most Favored Nation (MFN) status requires a country to provide any concessions, privileges, or immunities granted to one nation to all other WTO members. Without specific tariff benefits, U.S. suppliers will have to be price competitive if they are to achieve substantial increases in exports to China. Alternatively, Beijing could “advise&rd...
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...
From WPI Consulting
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.