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Articles of Interest – Friday, September 14, 2018

Articles of Interest – Friday, September 14, 2018

Asia Hungry for Wheat Amid Aussie Drought
The Australian 
– 9/14/2018
Asian flour millers are expected to seek rare wheat shipments from Argentina in coming months as a second year of drought in traditional supplier Australia curbs supplies. At present, Asian wheat importers, including the world’s biggest buyer Indonesia, are buying most of their wheat from the Black Sea region. But Russia and Ukraine are expected to run out of surplus supplies by the end of the year due to a autumn in output and strong demand for exports, forcing buyers are seek shipments from alternative origins, traders and analysts said.

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OSU’s Kim Anderson Breaks Down the Numbers in Latest WASDE Report
Oklahoma Farm Report – 9/13/2018
The Latest World Agriculture Supply and Demand report published by the USDA Wednesday, predicts the second-largest corn crop for the United States this year and a record soybean crop. In addition, the wheat supply and demand estimates are unchanged from last month, and the season average farm price range is unchanged at the midpoint of $5.10 per bushel and the range is narrowed $0.20 per bushel to $4.70 to $5.50. Anderson reiterates that the world is not producing as much wheat as it is consuming currently. By next harvest season, Anderson predicts the demand for high-quality protein wheat will have risen. He says farmers should plan accordingly to take advantage of the premiums that will be offered high-protein content.

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Senator Roberts, Moran: Enough With Trade War Damage to Kansas Economy
Topeka Capital Journal 
– 9/13/2018
Tag-team trade war skeptics Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran kept up rolling criticism Friday of a protectionist agenda unraveling free trade policies and eliciting retaliatory actions harmful to Kansas’ crop and livestock exporters. Roberts, a Republican who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, led a hearing that chewed on the issue like a hungry southwestern corn borer. “I hear from producers across the agriculture industry, and across our food value chain, about how trade policies impact their prices, decisions and livelihoods,” Roberts said. “On top of already low prices, the agriculture sector has seen immediate negative impacts as a result of retaliatory trade actions.”

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Senators Demand Turnaround on Agriculture Trade
Agri-Pulse 
– 9/13/2018
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee were united today in their demands that the Trump administration settle its trade battles around the world and start forging new free trade agreements. Chinese, Mexican and other retaliatory tariffs are hurting America’s farmers, who have seen prices and sales drop this year, and lawmakers stressed a growing impatience. “We need to hold our trading partners accountable, but I am concerned some of the trade actions we have seen in recent years are causing uncertainty and unpredictability for the agriculture industry,” Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told USTR Chief Agriculture Negotiator Gregg Doud, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney and USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson at the Wednesday hearing.

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Here’s Why It’s So Hard to Make a NAFTA Deal
Vox – 9/13/2018

The United States and Canada have spent the past few weeks trying to hammer out a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — and they don’t seem to be making much progress. “Nothing is done until everything is done,” Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Tuesday, as NAFTA talks continued. Put another way: There’s no deal yet. NAFTA is, of course, a trilateral agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the US that aims to reduce trade barriers. The agreement has been in place since 1994, and while its effect on jobs and manufacturing has been criticized in the past, President Donald Trump has shown particular animus for the pact, calling it one of “the worst trade deals ever made.”

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Source: U.S. Wheat Associates