Budget Raises Duty-Free Limit for Cross-Border Travellers

• Get updates on trade, Customs and regulatory changes
• Stay informed on trade compliance seminars,
  workshops and industry events

x

National Post Mar 30, 2012

Canadians traveling to the United States will soon be able to bring home far more duty-free goods, now that the federal government has tabled a budget harmonizing this country’s limits with those south of the border.

Starting June 1, travelers returning from a 24-hour trip can spend $200 at the duty-free shop, four times the current $50 limit. Anyone coming home from a 48-hour absence can legally cross the border with $800 worth of goods, double the current limit. The seven-day exemption was bumped, too, but only by $50 to $800.

Canadians make more than 30 million overnight trips outside the country, according to Thursday’s budget, which says “modernization” to the rules surrounding purchases is “long overdue.”

The changes mark the most significant increase in duty-free exemptions in decades, speeding up cross-border travel and freeing up customs agents to focus on other, more consequential, border issues.

“This measure will ease congestion at our borders,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in his prepared remarks, before the Conservative government tabled its budget Thursday afternoon in Ottawa.

He also said the government will continue working with the U.S. to implement the joint Beyond the Border plan to “strengthen and deepen the economic and security links between our two countries.”

Minister Flaherty’s Economic Action Plan 2012 says the government will lose money with the duty-free changes due June 1, reducing federal revenues by $13-million in 2012-2013 and by $17-million in 2013-2014.

Read Full Article on National Post »