New free trade deal with U.S. will see Canada's duty-free limit raised to $150 from $20

[Stygian]

I don't know when this will come into effect...perhaps now...perhaps in the new year after the Canadian, Mexican and US legislatures all approve and pass the new United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Canadians will be able to shop online and order from US sites that ship to Canada (still no Best Buy.com) and pay no duty on purchases up to $150.
However, we may have to pay sales tax on any purchases over $40.

Here's an article on MSN today.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/top...ar20/ar-BBNO5Pg?li=AAggNb9&ocid=mailsignoutmd

 

[Stygian]

When does it kick in?
Now that the deal has been negotiated, it needs to head to U.S. Congress for a mandatory 60-day review period. This means the USMCA could be signed before Dec. 1.

In the U.S. it will then be up to Congress, which could change after November’s midterm election, to ratify it before it comes into action.

In Canada, the signing of the deal comes shortly before the House of Commons rises for winter break.

And signing is not the same thing as ratifying the deal, which requires the legislatures of each member country to approve the agreement. For Canada, that attaches a looming deadline in the form of the upcoming elections in October 2019 and the end of the parliamentary sitting in June 2019.

Once the deal is signed in December, the federal government will need to introduce legislation to actually ratify and implement it. That bill will need to follow the same legislative process as any other, which will take months to gain approval from the various stages of review needed in both the House of Commons and the Senate before it can receive royal assent and become law.

And it will need to do all that before the parliamentary session ends in June or risk the deal becoming a campaign issue.

So basically the answer is as clear as mud.

 

[AlienKing]

@Stygian Nice, thanks for the heads up. But I have never been hit with duty for online orders. At least never for Blurays. I dont usually buy things outside of that realm though haha.

 

[Stygian]

@Stygian Nice, thanks for the heads up. But I have never been hit with duty for online orders. At least never for Blurays. I dont usually buy things outside of that realm though haha.

This will only help on the rare occasion when I need to order something from Amazon.com that isn't available in Canada or if I buy anything from HDN being shipped from the U.S.

 

[AlienKing]

This will only help on the rare occasion when I need to order something from Amazon.com that isn't available in Canada or if I buy anything from HDN being shipped from the U.S.

Exactly!