Extend 25% personal import duties to cover all incoming personal purchases.

We are all already used to paying 25% duty at the airport when bringing in goods for personal use. As there are no flights coming in for us to bring in our own goods, we are all now shopping online and having the couriers bring things in for us. The 25% import duty that applies to personal imports brought with you in person via the airport should be expanded to apply to goods that are being imported via courier for personal use from online stores such as Amazon, Best Buy, etc.

Not only would this supplement a source of revenue for the government which is lost due to no air arrivals, it will also give us a choice of whether to buy from Amazon +25% or shop locally. Shopping locally keeps the $'s in Bermuda. However, many local retailers are not setup to sell online yet, but surely they are working on this. Shopping on Amazon.com is so easy, but that sends $'s overseas. Local retailers who have to pay rents, taxes, payroll costs, etc - all of which support the gov't and locals (via jobs) and, in turn, the local economy - should not have to pay the same import duty rates for personal goods as individuals who are importing goods themselves and having them shipped to their door - and that creates an impossible situation for local retailers.

If we are going to get our economy going again, we are going to need to spend money locally... bars, restaurants, and retail stores. But why would l line up outside of Gorham's to wait to pick up my item, when I can order it online much cheaper, pay the same duty rate as them, and have it delivered to my door?

There are some items that already have a 25% duty (vacuums, for example). So perhaps the policy is that anything imported directly for personal use is the current Bermuda tariff plus 25%. So if I import a Dyson for myself, I pay 50% duty whereas Gorhams pays 25% (plus rent, taxes, wages, etc).

If I import clothes, I only pay 6.5% duty, which is the same that Gibbons/ASC pays. Again, it is not a tenable situation for Gibbons/ASC. If I had to pay 25% for my clothes that I ship in (or 31.5% if the 25% is on top of local tariffs), then I would consider leaving my house and head to Gibbons/ASC to see what they have.

Local resellers (ie: local retailers that import goods readily available on the internet and re-sell them) are at a massive disadvantage. Allowing Amazon purchases into Bermuda at the same duty rate as local resellers pay will close down many of the local retailers/resellers... Reid street will be a ghost town and that will be bad for Bermuda.

I am aware that this plan would increase costs for locals, and we are all already on tight budgets given the layoffs and bleak economic outlook. But if the 25% applies to non-essential goods, then it will at least make us think before we hit Buy Now on Amazon, and it will at least make us consider shopping for it locally before sending our $'s overseas.