February 28, 2026 – A wave of American and Israeli strikes on Iran, and retaliation by Tehran on targets across the region have forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to shut down, with reverberations across the globe. At least eight states declared their airspace closed as the conflict erupted Saturday, including Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The closures came after the U.S. and Israel carried out attacks across Iran that US President Donald Trump pledged would raze Iran’s missile industry and destroy its navy. Iran, which had been engaged in negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program right up until the attack, pledged a harsh response and soon began waging retaliatory strikes in Israel, as well as several Gulf Arab states that host U.S. military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain. “All American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target,” a senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera. “There are no red lines after this aggression, and everything is possible.” The Middle East has become an important route for flights between Europe and Asia, as Russian and Ukrainian airspace is closed to most airlines due to the war there. In addition, the Strait of Hormuz is an important shipping lane and is now at risk of being closed.
February 23, 2026 – With the weekend flurry of activity in the USA, here are the three most salient points for Canadian exporters to the USA: a. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a new 10 per cent global tariff on Friday, though Canadian exports to the U.S. that comply with the CUSMA trade deal will be exempt. B. Trump came down with the new levies after a 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidated his old set of sweeping tariffs from last year. C. The auto, steel and aluminum tariffs that have been the most damaging to Canada’s economy remain in place because they were imposed under different legislation.
February 17, 2026 – In a merger of two of the world’s largest container shipping lines, Hapag-Lloyd of Germany will acquire Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping Services for $4.2 billion. Zim confirmed the news in an announcement Monday. Zim said the sale is structured so that a new Israel-based company, New ZIM, will acquire a portion of its business. Zim did not provide further details. But the new company, financed by an Israeli private equity investor, ensures state control of the carrier’s owned vessels, for security purposes. Hapag-Lloyd is one-third owned by state funds of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The deal, which requires approval by Zim shareholders and regulators, is expected to close in late 2026.
January 27, 2026 – In order to support the transition to the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, the CBSA in January 2025 put in place transition measures for late-payment interest as per Customs Notice 25-02. As per CBSA, starting on January 31, late-payment penalties and late-payment interest will no longer be waived, and monthly calculation on unpaid debts such as duties, penalties and other amounts owing will resume. The late-payment interest will start accruing on accounts with an overdue balance as of January 31, and will be included on the Statement of Account to be issued on February 25.
September 30, 2025 – The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is currently experiencing a systems issue that is causing significant delays for carriers at all land and air ports of entry. CBSA has announced that it has identified the root cause of the issue and is actively working on a resolution. However, no estimated time for full restoration has been provided at this stage. Carriers approaching the border are advised to consult us and ensure they have paper copies of all required documentation ready upon arrival. While CBSA continues to receive inbound data via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and the eManifest portal, it is currently unable to process or transmit outbound messages. This includes acknowledgements, reject messages, and notices such as Release Notification System (RNS) and completeness notices sent through EDI or the eManifest portal. eManifest portal users may also experience delays when trade data is in “updating” status. Canaan Transport is monitoring the situation and will provide updates directly to customers as they become available.
September 1, 2025 – Effective today, Canada will drop some retaliatory tariffs on American products to match U.S. tariff exemptions for goods covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. This now removes a sector specific tax on goods imported into Canada. However, certain tariffs that mirror the implementation of US Tariffs on Canadian made steel and aluminum products still remain.
August 19, 2025 – A tentative agreement has been reached to end the contract dispute between Air Canada and its flight attendants, both the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said early today. CUPE, which represents more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, said that after nine hours of talks with the assistance of the chief mediator appointed by the federal government, the deal struck will be presented to its membership, who will have an opportunity to ratify it. Among the sticking points for the union was the issue of pay for work performed while planes are on the ground. While not elaborating on the issue, the union said in a statement that "unpaid work is over." CUPE advised its members to "fully co-operate with resumption of operations." Air Canada said that flights will gradually return beginning this evening.
August 18, 2025 – Air Canada flight attendants said on Sunday they will remain on strike and spurn a government return-to-work order they called unconstitutional. The Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement that members would remain on strike and invited Air Canada back to the table to “negotiate a fair deal.” On Saturday, the Canadian government moved to end the strike by more than 10,000 flight attendants. The Canadian Industrial Relations Board agreed to a government request to order binding arbitration and end the strike to break their contract impasse, an action Air Canada had sought but unionized flight attendants fiercely opposed. The Canada Labour Code gives the government the power to ask the CIRB to impose binding arbitration in the interest of protecting the economy.
August 15, 2025 – Due to the union strike, Air Canada will cease all operations effective August 16th at 1:00 am. All of our clients that have shipments on Air Canada have been proactively notified and those with shipments next week are asked to be patient as we individually contact you to discuss the options.
August 11, 2025 – CBSA has informed importers that the annual review of the financial security requirement for RPP, originally scheduled to occur yearly in July according to subsection 7.8 of Memorandum D17-5-2 Financial Security for Release Prior to Payment, has been rescheduled to October of a given year to October of the following year. This means the CARM system will calculate an updated financial security requirement based on transactions from October 2024 to October 2025 and notify importers via portal notification if a change to their financial security is required. If so, the importer will have until January 15, 2026 (for this year’s review cycle and every January 15 moving forward), to ensure their financial security meets the newly calculated amount. This decision has been made to provide importers with adequate time to better adapt to the new RPP requirements.