In addition to having a direct impact on inflation, current high oil prices have profound implications for world trade patterns, according to CIBC World Markets. The cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container from East Asia to the North American east coast has already tripled since 2000 and will double again as oil prices head towards $200 per barrel.
Exploding transport costs may soon remove the single most important brake on inflation over the last decade - wage arbitrage with China....MORE