Canada-U.S. price gap blamed on multinational companies

Source: CBC

Many brand-name products still cost 35 to 40 per cent more in Canada compared to the United States even though the loonie has been above parity for most of the past year, and retailers are blaming their suppliers.

Diane Brisebois, CEO of the Retail Council of Canada, said the merchants she represents are being unfairly singled out for having higher prices than their U.S. counterparts. Because Canada's population is so small in comparison to the U.S., large multinational vendors can enforce a special Canadian price for brand-name products, she told a Senate committee looking into the issue on Tuesday.

Some studies show the countrywide price gap averages more than 20 per cent, but a Bank of Canada analysis in September put the discrepancy at 11 per cent, a drop from 18 per cent last April.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/24/canada-us-price-gap-senate-hearings-retail-council.html