Time to Apply the WTO’s Enforcement Power
By Ben Conner, USW Assistant Director of Policy The power of the World Trade Organization (WTO) may seem somewhat dim these days. The Doha Round negotiations have been stalled for years and there are many flagrant violations of WTO rules that have been documented by groups like USW. Free trade agreements (FTAs) proliferate, while many […]
Welcome Progress on Trans-Pacific Partnership
By submitting the draft “Statement of Administrative Action” (SAA) to the U.S. Congress on Aug. 12, 2016, the U.S. Trade Representative moved one step closer to the final consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The SAA describes actions necessary to implement the provisions of TPP and contains details about how U.S. law would need to […]
A Diatribe on the Politics of Trade Agreements
By Ben Conner, USW Deputy Director of Policy Few who followed U.S. politics as recently as last summer would have expected to see presidential candidates from both major parties taking a hard line against new and existing free trade agreements, but that is the world we now wake up to every day. It has always […]
U.S. Wheat Associates and NAWG Joint Committees Meet in Fargo
By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy The two joint farmer committees of USW and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) met last week in Fargo, ND, for a policy update and to consider key issues facing the wheat industry. The joint committees were created more than a decade ago to enable and […]
New Food for Progress Funding Reflects Food Aid Benefits
By Elizabeth Westendorf, USW Policy Specialist Last week, USDA announced Food for Progress funding allocations for fiscal year 2016. A total of $153.2 million in funding will go to projects in eight countries that USDA estimates will reach over 3.8 million beneficiaries. Half of the countries on the list (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Mozambique) […]
Brazilian Flour Millers Discuss Trade Policy with USW, U.S. Officials
An old adage suggests that two of the biggest influences on a market are weather and governments. Though there is not much that USW can do about the weather, government policies are one key area where we can work with our customers to help achieve beneficial outcomes for both. A leading example of that cooperative […]
USW Discusses Changes in Global Wheat Trade
USW President Alan Tracy joined the International Grains Council (IGC) for their 25th annual conference June 14 to present an overview of changes in global wheat trade, trade distorting government policies and the United States’ shift to quality-based wheat markets. More than 200 attendees at the conference in London, United Kingdom, came from grain importing […]
Congress Acts on Key Funding Priorities for Wheat Production System
By Josh Tonsager, Legislative Director, National Association of Wheat Growers Congressional action this year on policy priorities important to wheat farmers has taken some unexpected turns and the outlook for the legislative process is unclear. By now, this should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following Congress the past several years. […]
Trade Negotiation Focus Turns to T-TIP
U.S. trade negotiators are now focusing more and more on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), a proposed free trade agreement between the United States and the EU. T-TIP negotiations started in 2013 and maintained a relatively slow pace until last fall when negotiators completed the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now awaiting congressional ratification. […]
Cubans and U.S. Grain Trade Officials Meet to Discuss New Opportunities
By Ben Conner, USW Deputy Director of Policy This week, a team of Cuban agriculture and trade officials visited the United States to explore the U.S. grain production system at the invitation of the U.S. Grains Council, which asked USW to present information about U.S. wheat trade at a meeting with the officials in Washington, […]
