Canada’s retail industry is warning that raising the duty-free allowance for cross-border shipments could lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses and cut billions of dollars from the Canadian economy.
The numbers come from a Retail Council of Canada-commissioned PwC study out Friday that shows the potential fallout if Canada agreed to requests from U.S. lawmakers to increase the duty-free allowance from $20 to $800 as part of NAFTA talks.
“It has very, very significant implications for not only our sales, but for employment in the industry, for Canadian GDP, and actually for revenues for government,” said Karl Littler, vice-president of strategic issues at the Retail Council.
The study found the net economic impact of raising to $800 the allowance for charging taxes and duties on international shipments, a value known as the de minimis threshold, would lead to a $12-billion hit to Canada’s GDP by 2020 and upwards of 300,000 job losses.
Read full story here: Rise In Duty-Free Allowance Could Cost Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs: Study – Business – CBC News
