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"NEWS photo Melt Lucente

| NEWBORN PYGMY goats see eye to eye at Maplewood Farm in North Vancouver. Recently, the farm has had new arrivals of baby goats and

lambs.

EVY

A NORTH Vancouver importer tas called the federal gov-
ernment’s attitude toward alcohol abuse hypocritical after
discovering that federal sales and excise tax levies to import
de-alcoholized champagnes and wines into Canada are
32,582 per cent higher than comparable costs to import the
products into the United States.

Crocodile Marketing Ltd. presi-
dent Rod Salfinger began in-
vestigating the viability of impor-
ting the Australian products into
the United States instead of
Canada after being hit with an
unexpected $14,300 DAS (Detailed
Adjustment Statement) federal

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

government bill on an_ initial
$100,000 shipment.
Salfinger said his company orig-

inally decided to import the bever-

ages into Canada after being ad-
vised by a Canada Customs com-
modities specialist that there would
be no federal sales tax on the pro-
ducts.

But when the first 36,000-bottle
shipment arrived in November, he
was informed that the product was
subject to 18 per cent federal sales
tax and a further 1.76 cent per-litre
excise tax.

The additional costs, he said,
make the beverages too expensive
to promote and sell in area super-
markets.

‘We de-alcoholized

felt the

products provided a good alter-
native to alcoholic drinks for peo-
ple,’” said Salfinger, who set up his
business in Canada in April. ‘‘But
the government has made it
uneconomical to import them into
Canada. On the one hand gov-
ernments are prepared to spend
enormous amounts of money on
alcohol and drug awareness pro-
grams and yet on the other hand
they make a mockery out of that
spending by preventing the suc-
cessful marketing of a partial solu-
tion to the problem.””

Salfinger subsequently re-ex-

OW REGULAR AND DE-ALCOHOLIZED WINE THE SAME

NV importer cries foul
over federal sales tax

ported the two-thirds of his origi-
nal shipment not committed Jocally
to the United States after deter-

mining that the American gov-
ernment required only 3.92 cents
for duty and tax on each 12-bottle
box of the beverages compared
with $9.84 required by the Cana-
dian government.

Crocodile has therefore moved
its importation business to the
United States. A  60,000-bottle
shipment, which Salfinger said was
initially destined for North Van-

See Importer