New Canadian tax fizzles as business, trade issue. (Special Report: Canada; 7% goods and services tax)

New Canadian tax fizzles as business, trade issue

The word late last year was that Canada's new goods and services tax would be a boon for Western New York.

Implementation of the 7 percent GST on Jan. 1 was expected to give hardpressed Canadian consumers yet another reason to do their shopping in Buffalo or Niagara Falls.

Canadian even had a joke about the likely impact of the new tax. They said GST stood for "go south today."

However, early indications are that these expectations were not transformed into reality, at least not during the GST's first 100 days.

* Canadian shoppers still are crossing the Niagara River in large numbers, drawn by lower prices in the United States. But traffic on the international bridges did not increase substantially after the new tax's implementation.

* The GST extended the sales tax to services for the first time in …