Flaherty moves to eliminate $32 million in manufacturing tariffs

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is eliminating $32 million in annual tariffs on some of the goods used in Canadian manufacturing.

The move means Canadian manufacturers will no longer have to pay customs duties to import key inputs used in food processing, furniture and transportation equipment.

Flaherty says this announcement is the latest step in the government’s 2010 commitment to make Canada a tariff-free zone for industrial manufacturers, and is part of its grand plan to foster job growth.

“By lowering costs for these businesses, we are enhancing their ability to compete in domestic and foreign markets and helping them invest and create jobs here at home,” he said in a press release.

He says the list of 70 different products that will soon be tariff-free is the result of long consultations with business.

The list includes apple juice concentrate and other mixtures used to make drinks, hardware for furniture, parts used to make trailers and transport equipment, gelatin capsules for pharmaceuticals, and conveyor belts.

In an interview CTV’s Question Period, Flaherty said many of the tariffs dated from a previous era, and no longer make any sense.

“It relates to things like fasteners in clothing and trailer parts, a series of things that were tariff-able before but now they’re just an impediment to Canadian business, Canadian manufacturing,” he said.

“Some of these old-fashioned tariffs get in the way. So we’re getting rid of them. We’re leading the world, in fact, in reducing tariffs on our manufacturing sector.”