There has been a lot of talk this year about updating the
North American free trade agreement or NAFTA for short and one of the proposed
changes could be a big win for US retailers. NAFTA is now 25 years old and when
originally drafted it primarily ignored the concerns of ecommerce for a pretty
good reason… there was no internet commerce in 1992! At least none to speak of
its estimated that the web consisted of less than 30 websites at the time can
you imagine that? Ecommerce has made an incredible impact that no one in 1992
could have foreseen. It has
fundamentally changed the way we buy and trade, its importance cannot be
ignored in any discussions of trade with other nations.
So what does this have to do with my eBay business well
potentially a lot. One of the key
revisions that the US is pushing for with NAFTA is an increase in the duty free
import limits on ecommerce. As it currently stands these thresholds are set at
$50 and $20 for Mexico and Canada respectively the US government would like
these to be raised to $800. What does this mean to you? Well potentially a lot
more customers in both Canada and Mexico. With $800 duty free import cap many
of now wary consumers in both nations will have a big added incentive to shop
with that US based sellers and potentially purchase more goods or higher dollar
items.
Now this is by no means a done deal, yet both Canada and
Mexico have pushed back hard on the proposal. Both fear it could undercut their domestic
retailers and potentially open a backdoor floodgate of global mass produced
merchandise pouring into Canada and Mexico via the United States. It’s safe to
say that both countries are not so much concerned about made in the USA as they
are made in china and shipped via the USA. Even if both nations refuse the $800
cap, it is almost a certainty that limit will be going up in the near future. With the levels set were they currently are, honestly
any increase no matter how small would be a vast improvement.