Harper's 'iPod tax' will sting

The head of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters has launched a blistering attack on the Conservative government for what she's calling its "quest for cash" that is hurting business and will cost consumers.

Joy Nott, the president of I.E. Canada, is wading into an ongoing dispute between a coalition of television importers and the Canadian Border Services Agency over what critics are calling the Harper government's "iPod tax."

TV importers have evidence the government has given them bad advice on tariff exemptions that Ottawa intended to later claw back, including tariffs on TVs, computer speakers and MP3 players, such as iPods.

But Nott says the problem runs deeper, and that major tariff changes announced in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's March budget will have a ripple effect on Canada's import-export community - and consumers.

The budget prominently stated that import duties on some popular sporting goods would be dropped. But buried in the back pages it also noted that Canada would be "graduating" goods from 72 countries to a higher tariff classification, starting in 2015. The measure will bring in $333 million annually, said the government.

"Quite frankly, the single line about the (General Preferential Tariff) changes actually has a much wider and much more negative impact on the ultimate consumer than duty giveaways on cricket bats and hockey sticks and whatever," Nott said in an interview.

"I think at this point it hasn't really hit home to the average consumer that this all means for them increased prices."

But consumers are not I.E. Canada's membership. Businesses are.

An internal poll by I.E. Canada found that almost 60 per cent of its members were unaware of the budget's tariff changes.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: The Province