Retail Council of Canada supports tariff study launch

OTTAWA, Aug. 7, 2013 /CNW/ - Retail Council of Canada (RCC) supports the launch of a year-long monitoring project looking at the effect of tariff reductions originally announced in the Government of Canada's April budget. At the time, Minister Flaherty committed to $79 million of tariff relief on baby clothing and sports and athletic equipment and challenged wholesalers, distributors and retailers to pass the savings on to consumers.

Today, the Department of Finance announced that they have issued a contract to Nielsen to "monitor the level of savings for Canadian consumers through recently announced tariff relief measures."

"RCC and our members have been active partners in this initiative from the outset and we support the Department's efforts in monitoring the effect of these changes," said Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO of RCC. "Our members reacted very positively to the changes announced in the March Budget," said Brisebois, "but at the time, we cautioned the public that it could take a number of months before any benefits are realized as Retailers have to deal with existing stock upon which high tariffs have already been paid."

Brisebois went on to caution that while tariff reductions remove a major component of the cost imbalance between Canada and the U.S., there are other important factors that go into the price Canadians pay for the products they purchase,  most notably currency fluctuation and shifting labour costs.

Before the tariffs were eliminated on April 1, 2013, many baby garments were subject to high import tariffs of 18% and sporting equipment such as hockey helmets, ice skates, hockey gloves carried tariffs ranging anywhere from 8.5% to 18%. "While RCC strongly supports the government's decision to address these tariffs we see this as a first step in addressing the hundreds of consumer products that still carry very high tariffs," said Brisebois.

"This is a multi-faceted issue," continued Brisebois, "we look forward to working with the Department on further tariff reductions as well as on ways to minimize the impact of tariff changes resulting from the removal of countries from eligibility under the General Preferential Tariff rate.  Working together, we can ensure that Canadian Retailers compete on a level playing field."

Retail Council of Canada (www.retailcouncil.org) is the Voice of Retail. Founded in 1963, RCC is a not-for-profit association which represents more than 45,000 stores of all retail formats, including department, grocery, independent merchants, regional and national specialty chains, and online merchants.

SOURCE: Retail Council of Canada

Devon Pool
Retail Council of Canada
416 467-3759     1 888-373-8245 x 241
[email protected]