New High for Canadians Travelling Abroad

After new rules that increased duty-free exemptions for cross-border shopping came into effect, Canadians made a massive 1.9 million overnight trips to the U.S. in one month.

Since June 1, cross-border shoppers on an overnight trip have been allowed to declare up to $200 worth of purchased goods, four times as much as was previously allowed.

For anyone who travels for 2 – 7 days the limit has been raised from $400 to $800 and if you stay for more than a week it has increased from $750 to $800.

This is bad news for any Canadian retails that are struggling to compete with their American counterparts, but excellent news for the consumer.

The total number of overnight trips undertaken by Canadians hit its highest point in almost four decades, a total of 2.8 million overnight trips were taken in June, 5.7% more than in May.

However, various local chambers of commerce and the Retail Council of Canada have asked Ottawa to change the law in order to help prevent cross-border shopping. They are calling for the federal government to remove the taxes charged on imported goods which adds to the costs that Canadian retailers must consider when setting prices.