Article updated February 24, 2016
Today, President Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 into law. The long-awaited customs reauthorization law increases the U.S. de minimis threshold, urges other countries to do the same, and modernizes customs rules to allow U.S. sellers to accept retail returns duty-free.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. While this customs bill removes frictions for global ecommerce sales, it also triggered developments on the Internet sales tax front.
eBay strongly encourages the Senate to take up and pass the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (H.R. 644), which would support the ability of small Internet-enabled retailers to successfully export across the globe. According to the new Small Online Business Growth Report, 97% of eBay-enabled U.S. small businesses export and 59% of those reach 10 or more different foreign markets. This statistic is notable because less than 4% of traditional businesses export, regardless of their size.
Pictured from left to right: eBay Seller Mac Griffiths, eBay GR Team Member Katie Stevens, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams
This article originally appeared on BIPAC.net. Written by Bo Harmon, Senior Vice-President, Political Field Divison of BIPAC.
On Monday morning before the first votes were cast in Iowa, Donald Trump held a 20 point lead in New Hampshire and a 15 point lead in South Carolina. If he had won Iowa, there was broad expectation that he would cruise on through New Hampshire and South Carolina on his way to wrapping up the GOP nomination. Now, there are dozens of scenarios of how the race could turn out, but Trump running the table is no longer one of them.
In just 5 days, on February 1st 2016, Iowa will formally kick off the presidential nomination process and hold the first caucuses in the nation. They hold special significance in the Presidential election process, because they are the first time voters will weigh in on the Presidential nomination contest. The Caucuses are notorious for weaning out non-viable candidates and setting the stage for the rest of the Presidential Election.