TORONTO, ONTARIO – May 21, 2019 – As an enabler and advocate of small businesses, eBay Canada is calling on provincial ministers to remove burdensome policy barriers that prohibit local wine, beer and spirit producers from expanding their domestic markets and reaching consumers beyond their provincial borders.
eBay Canada applauds the federal government’s recent decision to remove the last federal restriction on the interprovincial trade of alcohol and spirits and, in advance of the internal trade ministers’ meeting at the end of May, is calling for action at the provincial level.
eBay has been a strong and consistent advocate for the elimination of barriers that prevent small businesses from reaching new customers. And, as an online platform, we particularly understand the ability of the Internet to cost-effectively enable this trade and meaningfully drive sales growth.
“Canadian small businesses should not be denied access to Canadian consumers just because they live in a different province. The upcoming internal trade ministers’ meeting is the perfect opportunity to revisit these outdated laws and reform archaic and burdensome trade policies to ensure that we are supporting, not stifling small business growth,” says Andrea Stairs, general manager of eBay Canada & Latin America.
“By removing antiquated interprovincial policies we will create the conditions to allow small businesses to trade within their own country, and unlock significant economic prosperity as a consequence.”
As part of a solution, the Toronto Region Board of Trade is proposing an “icebreaker” deal to trade ministers to allow for online sales of locally-produced alcoholic beverage across interprovincial borders.
eBay Canada supports this proposed deal and urges provinces that have already shown ambition and appetite to support small business trade in Canada to take a leadership role in paving the way to a more thriving and competitive economy, encouraging other provinces to join the deal.
“We’re pleased that eBay, an enabler of small business trade, is engaging on this important issue. We have world class producers right across the country and we should be supporting their ability to grow and succeed by enabling all legal-aged Canadians to order these fantastic products,” said Jan De Silva, President & CEO, Toronto Region Board of Trade and Chair, Canadian Global Cities Council. “British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba have already made changes to allow freer interprovincial direct-to-consumer trade in wine, so the regulatory foundations for an icebreaker deal are already in place.”
About eBay
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is a global commerce leader including the Marketplace, StubHub and Classifieds platforms. Collectively, we connect millions of buyers and sellers around the world, empowering people and creating opportunity through Connected Commerce. Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay is one of the world's largest and most vibrant marketplaces for discovering great value and unique selection. In 2018, eBay enabled $95 billion of gross merchandise volume. eBay is visited by 8 million unique Canadians per month (comScore Media Metrix: March 2019). For more information about the company and its global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.
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