Sending more products into Canada without having the added tax and duty charges.
That’s what online retailers, primarily from the United States, would like to have happen, but Retail Council of Canada Director Jim Cormier says it’s a bad idea.
The Retail Council of Canada is against their efforts to increase the “de minimis level”, which is the amount a product or products can be worth without needing to pay taxes or duty charges when shipped into Canada.
Canada has one of the lowest de minimis levels in the world at $20.
The group of online retailers who are pushing for the increase would like it set at $200.
Cormier says the increase would have a negative impact on the local retail sector in New Brunswick because the vast majority of retail products that are purchased online can be bought for under $200.
He says meanwhile retailers here in New Brunswick that are employing New Brunswickers and are paying taxes are at a “humongous disadvantage”, because they have to pay 15 percent tax and a customs duty.
Cormier says it would lead to an unlevelled playing field and calls the potential increase “problematic for retailers across Canada.”
