In demand for fracking, supplies of the Asian beans are thin on the ground The new “black gold” isn’t oil, but guar, a bean whose seeds are made into a gum used to thicken sauces, ice cream, yogurts – and now “proppants,” the materials that are forced into fractured...
Cachaça is in a class by itself, USTR says (and, please, don’t call it rum) UK distiller Diageo is set to pay $450 million to Ypióca Agroindustrial Limitada to acquire the leading premium cachaça brand, Ypióca, the Financial Times reports. The acquisition, Diageo...
Speculative rumors produce real increases, although not nearly as big as 2003 Last month, a flurry of headlines, starting with a report in the UK’s Telegraph, warned that the wholesale price of vanilla was set to rise sharply – adding as much as 10% to the retail...
Fair trade coffee gains ground among fine, specialty brews As Bill Armbruster notes in Fair Trade: Sustainable Trend?, imported coffee accounted for 78% of all the fair trade premiums paid by US companies in 2011. Fair Trade USA reports that 2011 was a banner year for...
Four months to set the date: pretty fast by FTA standards by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Like many free traders, I was part of the chorus singing “Hallelujah” when Congress passed legislation last October approving the free-trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and...
USTR releases list of imports that may lose duty-free status Last week, the US Trade Representative (USTR) released 2011 data through September that indicates trade in certain imported articles from several countries may exceed Competitive Need Limitations (CNL)...
US exports to Chile have soared since FTA took effect in 2004 by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor I caught Barbara Kotschwar, a Latin America specialist with the Washington-based Petersen Institute for International Economics, by surprise when I said I wanted to talk...
Coalition petitions US government for countervailing duties on Chinese imports SolarWorld Industries America, which lays claim to being the largest US domestic producer of crystalline silicon photovoltaic products, is at the head of a seven-member Coalition for...
Two of Peru’s top ag products find markets in the US See Peru Ramps up Ag Exports.
Here are the top shippers to the US by volume so far this year As we’ve noted[Chinese Solar Imports Draw Fire], there’s been a surge in solar imports from China that has alarmed advocates for the US domestic industry. Now US solar manufacturers are reported to be...
