BUSINESS REPORT: Online shopping may become a lot less expensive

Shoppers could finally be getting a break on U.S. purchases as online shopping is one of the flashpoints raised by the U.S. in upcoming NAFTA negotiations.

Canada has been holding the online duty and tax-free amount that can be ordered from the U.S. at the ridiculous level of $20 for years, but the U.S. insists that limit be pushed to $800.

Online shopping has been undercutting U.S. retailers for years and Canadian retailers fear that e-commerce companies such as Amazon and eBay will undercut their prices – even with the U.S. dollar worth almost 30 per cent more than the Canadian dollar.

The big worry is not American-made products, but cheap items manufactured overseas and repackaged as American.

Those items would then be sent into Canada through a lifting of the duty and tax-free shopping limits, similar to the limits Canadian shoppers enjoy when physically crossing the U.S. border.