Weighing in With Utah’s Political Leaders

February 10, 2017

The eBay Team with Governor Herbert

Tekedra Mawakana, eBay’s V.P. of Global Government Relations and Public Policy, met with Utah Governor Gary Herbert this week to thank him for his ongoing support for eBay and our corporate growth in the state – a footprint that includes a large Customer Experience Center that houses over one thousand employees, and a state-of-the-art, “green” data center. He and his team at the Governor’s Office of Economic Development have been invaluable partners over the years in support of our growth.

As a national leader on trade, we also had the chance to speak about some of the challenges Utah small businesses face when trading with one of their largest trading partners, Canada. Since over 98% of eBay small businesses in Utah export to one or more countries, as compared to only 3-5% of traditional small businesses, issues like di minimis – i.e. customs and duties threshold parity – make a large difference in ecommerce. We also spent time discussing the challenges that Internet sales tax proposals in the state and around the country have on eBay sellers.   

Tekedra also met with Speaker Greg Hughes – not only Speaker of the State House, but also eBay’s representative in the “Fighting 51st!“ - to express strong concerns eBay’s small sellers have regarding state legislation, SB 101, that aims to overturn Supreme Court precedent protecting online businesses from taxation and audits imposed by the 46 other taxing states. 

As always, eBay will continue to look for opportunities to engage public officials at all levels on behalf of our customers.