The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are hung up on tariffs, but Europe's aspiration for geographical indicators is an area of huge leverage for the U.S. TTIP Strategy The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are hung up on tariffs, an unlikely category under earlier calculations. The U.S. apparently shorted its offer on tariff reductions in response to the EU's insistence on tariff-rate quota (TRQ) protections for sensitive products and is reportedly seeking an end game that would eliminate all tariffs. There were no discussions on the more difficult area of agriculture or regulations during this past week's negotiating session.U.S. senators seem more concerned about what a...
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...
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.