Freight trains are getting back on track in B.C., but shipping delays may last for months.  

Catch up: Heavy floods forced Canadian Pacific (CP) and Canadian National (CN) Railway to divert trains from the Port of Vancouver, Canada's biggest port, last week. The stoppage has affected supplies of gas, grains, and lumber in the province, and cut off the Port of Vancouver from the rest of Canada. 

• The number of idle rail cars has increased by 46% this year compared to 2019, driven largely by traffic jams at ports. 

What’s happening: CP and CN restarted some of their traffic earlier this week, but more storms are headed towards the Pacific coast next week which could lead to more disruptions. 

Why it matters: The Port of Vancouver accounts for $11.9 billion of Canada’s total GDP and is also critical to the B.C. economy. RBC said B.C.’s GDP may drop from 5.3% to 3.8% this year as a result of the floods, which will also impact Canada’s GDP for November. 

The U.S. is doubling duties on Canadian lumber producers.

Some context: Just like American families avoided difficult topics yesterday at Thanksgiving, lumber duties are a sore subject for both U.S. and Canadian officials. The U.S. has long justified the duties because it claims that Canada's lumber industry is heavily subsidized by federal and provincial governments, something that Canadian officials dispute. 

What happened: The U.S. will increase duties for most lumber producers in Canada from 8.99% to 17.9%, a move that will disadvantage Canadian lumber mills. 

• International Trade Minister Mary Ng said Canada would fight the tariffs through USMCA litigation and the World Trade Organization.
  
  

• Canadian lumber producers knew an increase in duties was on the horizon, and hurried to move as much lumber to the U.S. as possible in the past month.

Why it matters: The lumber market has been through the ringer this year. Coupled with an existing supply and demand mismatch and the B.C. floods, higher tariffs are another black eye for Canadian producers.

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This wasn’t the plan: oil prices are inching towards US-$100 per barrel, a sign that the recent release of strategic petroleum reserves by the U.S. and their allies may not be having much of an impact on oil prices. 

Catch up: The U.S., along with several other countries, hatched a plan to release oil from their strategic reserves to bring down oil prices. 

• Oil prices have jumped over 50% year-over-year due to high demand and a slower-than-expected increase in production output from OPEC+, which controls over 50% of the world’s oil supplies.   

What’s happening: The U.S.’ release of 50 million barrels, the single-biggest amount it’s released at once, was followed by a rise in prices of around $2. Analysts expect that the coordinated release of ~70 million barrels by countries like the U.K. and South Korea will only bring down prices by $1.30 per barrel. 

Why it’s happening: 120 million barrels of oil amount to a day or two of the world’s global oil supply, which is unlikely to have a long term effect on prices. 

Zoom out: Strategic oil reserves aren’t designed to influence prices, but rather to deal with short-term emergencies, like hurricanes. In fact, it’s the first time the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been used to sway oil prices — and given how it’s going so far, it may be the last.  

The U.S. added 12 more Chinese companies to its trade blacklist yesterday.

Refresher: The Biden administration has added 30 Chinese companies this year. The decision makes it virtually impossible for American companies to sell technologies to the Chinese firms. 

What happened: Eight out of the 12 Chinese companies the U.S. blacklisted are quantum computing companies. The U.S. doesn't want China to get its hands on high end tech that could be used to bolster their military or break U.S. encryption.

Big picture: The U.S. has only recently started to worry about China catching up or surpassing its technology, particularly when it comes to the military. A recent Chinese hypersonic missile amped up American fears about China getting advanced tech.

Innovation in education technology could create a new era of personalized learning, tailored to the needs of individual students. New tools like predictive analytics, augmented reality, and virtual reality will unlock new opportunities to inspire and engage students.

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