Rubin: Oil price to affect trade

Expect to see fewer ships coming into Halifax from across the Atlantic Ocean as the price of fuel skyrockets, says Jeff Rubin, a former chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

“Between the first and second OPEC oil shock, which was a period of great increase in oil prices, there was massive trade diversion away from transatlantic and transpacific trade and towards regional trade,” said the author of the bestselling Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller.

“The share of non-petroleum imports crossing an ocean fell six per cent and the share of trade with the West Indies and the Caribbean went up six per cent. Six per cent doesn