All Trade stories

The Port of Vancouver had a record-breaking year

The Port of Vancouver: It’s huge, it’s salty, it’s not very efficient, and it can teach us a thing or two about the state of Canada’s economy. 

What happened: A record volume of cargo moved through the Port of Vancouver last year, with ships carrying 150.4 million tonnes of stuff. The port saw elevated levels of shipments for really heavy things, like commodities and vehicles (some of which were maaaybe stolen). 

American meat labelling rules puts Canada in the crosshairs

Some new ground rules from our southern neighbour are putting Canadian cattle at risk of losing their honourary dual citizenship. 

What happened: This week, the U.S. issued new, more restrictive guidelines for when “Product of USA” labels can be used on meat, poultry, and eggs. The move is meant to help U.S. farmers, but experts expect it to hit Canada’s agriculture sector hard in the process. 

Polly Mitchell-Guthrie on how supply chains work

 On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Polly Mitchell-Guthrie, VP of Industry Outreach at Kinaxis, a Canada-based supply-chain management platform. 

Tensions are escalating in the Red Sea

Rebel attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea have been mucking up global trade for weeks, and Western powers have officially had enough.

What happened: U.S. and British jets and warships shot down one of the largest attacks of drones and missiles yet from Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels on a ship passing through the Red Sea. 

Canada clamps down on British cheese

In the Wallace and Gromit short A Grand Day Out, the duo went to the moon just for a bit of Wensleydale. This year, a slab of the historic British cheese might be even harder to source if you're a Canadian.

Driving the news: Prices for British cheese are set to skyrocket after a temporary trade arrangement that allowed for robust tax-free cheese imports from the U.K. expired.

Canada wins dairy dispute with US

While we, of course, have nothing but fondness for our southern neighbours, we also love beating them on the hockey rink, the soccer pitch, and in trade dispute court.

Driving the news: Canada came out on top of a major trade dispute with the US over dairy imports, with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s (USMCA) dispute resolution panel finding that Canada’s dairy policies were “not inconsistent” with the trade deal’s rules.

St. Lawrence Seaway workers join the strike wave

Shipping traffic at a key Canadian transportation artery has ground to a halt. No, there isn’t a 400-metre-long container ship blocking the Seaway, just 361 workers walking off the job.  

Driving the news: Unionized workers at the St. Lawrence Seaway, a 3,700-kilometer route that connects the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, have been on strike as of Sunday, forcing 15 locks along the waterway to close operations, per The Globe and Mail

Canada makes friends in the Indo-Pacific

At an international summit of Asian countries, the Prime Minister of Indonesia got a custom Team Canada basketball jersey, and Canada got a shiny new foreign partnership. 

What happened: Canada and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—an economic bloc of ten Indo-Pacific countries, including Indonesia and Singapore—signed a Strategic Partnership, a mostly symbolic gesture that recognizes increased cooperation. 

Western ports hit choppy waters

One of the world’s least efficient cargo ports is now facing the unimaginable: Becoming even less efficient. 

Canada joins the US corn crusade

In the biggest cornfield contest since Field of Dreams, Canada is joining the US in a trade complaint against Mexico over the country’s restrictions on genetically modified corn imports