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Economic Digest – September 2018

PILOTS
Boeing’s recently released 2018 Pilot & Technical Outlook is projecting demand for 790,000 pilots over the next 20 years. This represents double the current workforce and the most significant demand in the outlook’s nine-year history. Demand is being driven by an anticipated doubling of the global commercial airplane fleet, as well as record high air travel demand. 206,000 new pilots will be required in North America, 146,000 in Europe and 261,000 in the Asia-Pacific region.

SEATTLE
For the third consecutive year, Seattle has the most cranes in operation of any city in the US and three times as many as New York. Since 2010 Seattle has grown more quickly than any other large American city, thanks in part to the success of Amazon and Microsoft. Entrepreneurs are flocking to Seattle, repelled by the obscene costs of San Francisco. A single-family residence in Seattle now rents for US$2,600 per month on average, 25% more in real terms than five years ago. Seattle added 8,750 units of housing last year, nearly double San Francisco’s count and another 22,000 have been approved.

FOOD
The Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea had Canadians scooping up medals far from home, but the Games have also been a winner for Korean businesses in Canada. In the weeks before and since the Olympics began, owners of Korean stores and restaurants across the country say they have seen increased traffic and sales from customers interested in the culture of the 2018 Olympic host country.

TAXES
Facebook and Instagram will charge GST on online advertisements purchased through their Canadian operations, but other technology giants are not ready to follow suit just yet. The US-based social media networks said they decided to apply the taxes by 2019 in an effort to provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world who have called for greater visibility over the revenue associated with locally supported sales in their countries. The federal government has long faced pressure to force foreign online services to apply sales taxes to their work.

ALMANAC
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, Canadians are in for a colder than normal winter with below-average temperatures in most of the country. The forecast predicts that for most of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and north-western Ontario, temperatures will be well below seasonal averages during the 2018-19 winter. Temperatures will be coldest in February 2019 when -40C, or even -45C may be possible. In BC, the Almanac forecast predicts near-normal temperatures that will hover around 0 C, and wet or snowy weather.

SUGAR
The government in England is to ban energy drinks to children following health concerns about heavily caffeinated and sugar drinks. Two thirds of children aged 10 to 17 and a quarter of six to nine-year-olds consume energy drinks and teenagers drink them more than adults. The proposed ban only applies to England but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can follow suit if their administrations wish. Sugar is one of the largest causes of obesity

CATS
A regional council in New Zealand has proposed banning all domestic cats in an attempt to protect native birds. The South Island council’s new pest plan calls for the present domestic cats to be neutered, micro chipped and registered, after which. New cats will not be allowed. The move comes as New Zealand works on an ambitious goal to become predator-free by 2050. That plan is devoted to wiping out introduced species of rats, stoats and possums which are estimated to cost the New Zealand economy about US$3-billion annually..

FARMING
The world’s first offshore dairy farm opens in the Port of Rotterdam this year, with the aim of helping the city produce more of its own food. The offshore facility has been built in the middle of Rotterdam’s Merwehaven harbour and it will use it to farm 40 cows to be milked by robots. The farm is on three levels on a platform and is anchored to the ocean floor and is expected to produce about 800 litres of milk each day. The engineer who designed and built the facility came up with the idea in 2012 when working in New York on a floating housing project.

CONTAINERS
With 19,038 TEU containers on board, the Mumbai Maersk has set a world record for the largest-ever containership. The ship has a nominal capacity of 20,568 containers and is deployed on the Asia-to-Europe service. The load surpasses the previous record which reached 18,215 in 2015 and is reportedly the first ever to exceed the 19,000 TEU mark.

NOTE: All details pertaining to CARM R2 processes are based on the current information available at the time of writing. As this is subject to change, it’s recommended you periodically check in with the CBSA or your customs broker.