“The Internet is making trade more inclusive”: This was a key takeaway from the roundtable discussion between eBay small businesses and The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, at eBay’s Toronto office. The eBay Canada team recently hosted this roundtable event to connect Minister Champagne directly with our small business community and give him an opportunity to learn more about how eBay sellers are using the Internet to meaningfully scale their business by reaching customers in foreign markets.
“We were very happy to partner with eBay on this event and to showcase, quite literally, the world of opportunity that exists for the brilliant small businesses we have in Canada. Our future success depends on more Canadian companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), making bold moves and engaging in the global economy and there is no better mechanism for first-time exporters than ecommerce,” said Minister Champagne.
To help facilitate trade for SMEs, the Department of International Trade, together with partners BDC and EDC, have created a new online Tariff Finder. As SMEs are very aware, there are thousands of tariffs out there, and it can be hard for a business to find the correct one. The Tariff Finder eliminates the burden, hassle and headache and gets small business owners back to what they want to focus on, exporting their goods.
eBay small businesses from across Canada joined the roundtable, representing a variety of eBay verticals as well as different business models and sizes. The small businesses used the opportunity to describe their international ecommerce activity and the barriers that they face when selling online and exporting – including competitive shipping options and prohibitive Canadian border policies.
“Ninety-nine percent of Canadian small businesses on eBay export, and the majority of their sales are to foreign customers,” said eBay Canada Managing Director Andrea Stairs. “We need to work with governments across the globe to remove regulatory frictions that make it hard for our businesses to succeed internationally. Minister Champagne is a key voice in this work. It was an honor to host him at our Toronto office, and we appreciate his interest in and engagement with our seller community.”
Ensuring policymakers understand how and why small businesses use the internet to connect with global buyers is a top eBay policy priority. To learn more about how eBay Canada and the global public policy team partner with our sellers to promote ecommerce exporting, visit our trade policy page.