Small Won’t Win, Big Takes Time Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan met yesterday with USTR Robert Lighthizer and an EU spokesman described the talks as “constructive.” That might have also been the official description of their meeting three weeks ago when each side drew lines in the sand that were very far apart. President Trump is coercing the negotiations by threatening tariffs largely on German automobiles but imports from Europe are already in decline. First, there is the large production of European nameplates in America, and then there is the future comprised of electric cars, a category in which Tesla has replaced Mercedes and BMW as the luxury make of choice. The Commission says it lacks the mandate from...
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.