Not Substantially All Trade experts this week noted that the U.S.– Japan trade agreement might violate the WTO’s Article XXIV requirement that free trade agreements encompass “substantially all” trade between the participating countries. The agreement encompasses something less than 70 percent of all trade and while there is no agreed WTO metric defining substantially, some say the interpretation is 90 percent of trade. The U.S. has heretofore prided itself on negotiating more comprehensive free trade agreements, with some criticism of the substantial exclusions for agriculture in agreements negotiated by other countries. The U.S. will likely characterize the Japan agreement as interim, since the intent is to conti...
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.