[Brad Lockyer]

Hundreds of everyday items will soon be cheaper after the federal government announced the scrapping almost 500 so-called ‘nuisance tariffs’ on certain imported items from 1 July.

Products affected include imported garden tools, kitchen appliances, clothing and even menstrual and sanitary products. In a single move, 14 per cent of Australia’s import taxes will be wiped out.

The government says the move aims to “boost productivity, reduce compliance costs for businesses and ease the cost of living for Australian families by over $120 million over the next four years.”

“These tariffs do nothing to protect Australian businesses because they apply to goods that often arrive under a concessional rate.”

Any news of items getting cheaper is welcome, but we want to know what you’d like to taxes reduced on or even just see go down in price?

[Couldabeen]

Superficially this sounds like it’s all good. Over 500 items to cost as much as 10% less (a 5% drop in a Tariff will usually show through to a 10% drop in retail price) but this shows something very sad.
These Tariffs were originally protecting an Australian industry making those items. To say that the Tariff is no longer needed is telling us that the local industry has gone. The Australians who used to be employed in the manufacture of them are either unemployed or had to face a change in their life with a new job.
What has also been pointed out is that many of the current sources of these goods are in countries that are co-signatories to Free Trade Agreements so the Tariff didn’t apply to them anyway.

[Author]

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