Washington made a famous “pivot to Asia” in 2012 under the Obama Administration. The rise of China and a realization that 60 percent of the world’s population was not in the Europe/Middle East but in Asia. Vladimir Putin has reminded the U.S. capital that Europe remains at risk. Meanwhile, China has been courting Latin American countries, hoping to counter the footholds the U.S. has in Asia. It has also stepped up investing in Mexico (+76 percent) where it hopes to own the factories selling goods to Americans. Now German political leader Martin Scholz is noting the importance of Latin America. Notably calling the region the closest to having European values, though that is hard to understand beyond the fact they spe...
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...