Everyone in agribusiness is player in the global marketplace.

Equipment dealers, manufacturers, farmers and everyone else in US agribusiness, no matter the location of operations or sales, is operating as a player in today's global marketplace, according to Carol L. Brookins, chairman and CEO of World Perspectives, Inc., a Washington, DC firm specializing in agriculture and international trade.

Speaking at the Agricultural Outlook Forum in Washington, DC, in late February, Brookins told a large audience that in order to be winning competitors in a dramatically changed marketplace, agribusiness must look beyond an internal domestic economic and political perspective.

"It is time to build a policy structure that allows American agribusiness to flourish - from farms to markets," she said. "We can do this if we respond to the three dynamic trends driving agribusiness competition: globalization of world markets due to technology and political change, privatization or de-monopolization of economies and liberalization of the trading system."

"Everyone in US agribusiness is competing on a global scale, either directly or indirectly," Brookins told Implement & Tractor.

"Global" refers not only to geography, but also should also be thought of as the growing number and wide range of new, non-traditional agricultural products and industries throughout the world that use those agricultural products.