Yahoo! It's about time! I think Canada would make up some of the loss with more purchases being made here, so more Canadian sales taxes collected. So many people who live near the borders (a LOT of the heavily populated centers) do make shopping trips to the US to save money. Every now and then I'll look at a link that makes comparisons of prices and I'm astounded at how much more we pay.

Canada-U.S. price gap report calls for import tax cut

Senators who studied why Canadians pay more than Americans for many products are calling on the government to review the taxes on imported goods.

Consumers may see that happen: Finance Minister Jim Flaherty echoed the senators' concern about tariffs before they even tabled the report.

Members of the national finance committee spent more than a year hearing from 53 experts, including consumer groups, manufacturers and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, as they studied why Canadian prices differ from American when the dollar is close to equal. The committee's final report says it "cannot offer an explanation as definitive as it would have liked."

The committee says factors influencing price include transportation costs, the relative size of the Canadian market — and tariffs, or taxes on imports.

The report recommends:

- A "comprehensive review of Canadian tariffs … with the objective of reducing the price discrepancies for certain products between Canada and the United States."

- Looking at increasing value of how much can be shipped in Canada tax- and duty-free.

- Continuing to integrate safety Canadian standards with those in the U.S.

- Having Heritage Minister James Moore study the costs and benefits of reducing a 10 per cent mark-up that Canadian-exclusive distributors can add to U.S. list prices of American books.

The report says there are 8,192 tariff categories in Canada and that each category has 18 tariff treatments.

The tariffs generated $3.6 billion in tax revenue in 2010-2011, representing 1.5 per cent of the total government revenue collected that fiscal year. That same year, about 60 per cent of tariff revenue was collected on apparel and textile products, autos and auto parts, and footwear.

Flaherty wants tariffs cut

Flaherty, speaking to reporters before the report was released, said the government "would like to eliminate tariffs going forward."

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cana ... rt-tax-cut

The rest of the article has some very interesting facts.

Free trade, eh?

Just another way to cut revenue to justify more service cuts - shrinking government to obscurity.

Hey Canada... how's that Tea Party Government thingy working out for you?