South African Citrus authorities say it is now very urgent for the United States to publish its new rule which is due to widen the access of South African citrus to the United States.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its March 29 annual Prospective Plantings report, said farmers in 2019 intend to plant 4% more acres of corn than a year ago, 5% fewer acres of soybeans and 4% fewer acres of wheat.

The World Bank cut its 2019 global growth forecast, citing a slowdown in trade growth to the weakest since the financial crisis a decade ago and a drop in global investment.

Despite an unusually wet spring followed by an unusually cool June, America’s corn farmers planted even more than they did last year.

For a US president who is publicly threatening to take Greenland and Panama by military force – and also to annex Canada through crippling economic pressure – kicking South Africa out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), or even trashing the whole programme, would clearly be small change.