A few days ago,I planned to buy myself a Kindle,so I went to Amazon.ca,after I read through some comments,I found that some buyers were complaining about the price：Kindle charges higher in Canada than in the US.Actually the price gap problem has been disturbing Canadian for a long time.Say,some people in Vancouver will drive to Seattle on the weekends to purchase some groceries and to get some gas.Although the journey may take them a few hours they still think it’s worth going since they can save some money.
Why does the cost of living in Canada is usually higher than that in the US?Personally I think it’s because Canada is a big country but it has smaller population,therefore it has less firms and labors,the transportation cost will be higher.Secondly,tax plays an important role.Taxes account for a large proportion of government income,if government could reduce the imports tax,the prices of commodities in Canada would decrease.Anyway,it will be a long-period process since the price gap is not built in one day.
References:
- CBC News: “Canada-U.S. price gap report calls for import tax cut” Feb 06,2013 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-u-s-price-gap-report-calls-for-import-tax-cut-1.1306285
- CBC News embedded Video “US-Canada prices study” http://www.cbc.ca/player/Embedded-Only/News/ID/2332620344/
- Image: CBC News embedded video