EBay CEO expected to push Trudeau on duty threshold

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with eBay CEO Devin Wenig in San Francisco Thursday evening, they had at least onevery divisive issue on their plate.

The online sales giant hasbeen pushing Canada to boost its de minimis thresholdthe value of goodsCanadians can bring into Canada without incurring dutieswhich would make it cheaper for Canadians to shop online.

The Trump administration has made a similar demand by including the pitch in its NAFTA wish list, asking Canada to raise the level to $800 from $20.

The de minimisthreshold isn't talked about much publicly, even though it affects online shoppers. But two government sources suggest there are no plans to make any changes in the immediate future.One source suggested the issue is too toxic, given the anticipated backlash from Canadian retailers.

Last month, the Retail Council of Canada released a study that suggested hundreds of thousands of jobs could be lost if the threshold is raised.

Trudeau addressed the issue in San FranciscoThursday, telling reporters that while the deminimisthreshold has become a topic of interest during the ongoing NAFTAnegotiations, he would stand up for Canadian interests.

"I can simply reassure Canadiansthat, as they well know, I will always stand up for Canadian interests, including the interests of Canadian small businesses. That is something that we will not flinch on in how we move forward on NAFTA."

300 new jobs

Trudeau's meeting with Wenig is just one of several high-profile discussions the prime minister has on his agenda for the day, the second of his four-day trip to the U.S.

Trudeau is using the trip to promote NAFTA and look for new investment opportunities.

While in San Francisco, Trudeau also met with the president and co-CEO ofAppDirect,DanielSaks, whoannounced he would makean investmentthat would result in "at least 300 jobs in Canada within the next five years," according to a statement.

"This investment supports the Canadian economy and its workforce with plans for an emerging sales office inTorontoand expanding engineering talent inMontrealandCalgary," the statement said.

Trudeau welcomed the announcement, saying the investment "makes sense."

"By opening a new office in Toronto and hiring more engineers in Montreal and Calgary, today`s announcement will mean 300 new good jobs for Canadian workers."

Investing in Canada

Ahead of a Thursday meeting between Trudeau and SalesforceCEOMarc Benioff, the customer relations management companyannounced a$2-billion investment in its Canadian wing over the next five years.

The San Francisco-based company saidit will increase its headcount and expand its real estate footprint and data centrecapacity in Canada.

Salesforce's Canadian clients include Air Canada, Husky Energy, Loblaws, Manulife, Roots, TD Bank and TELUS.

While in California, Trudeau is shopping an expanding tech sector in places like Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo, where companies need executive-level expertise to stay competitive. Canada has also invested millions to attract top talent and researchers away from other countries.

The goal isn't to lure talent away from the region, but to ensure that Canada has a voice in what has become the epicentre of the new economy, said Rana Sarkar, Canada's consul general in San Francisco.

"We are here not to steal jobs from Silicon Valley," Sarkar said in an interview this week. "We are here to co-create with the tech sector here."

During his lunch-hour meeting with a roundtable of tech executives from companies like AirBNB, Eventbrite, Google, PayPal, and Pinterest, Trudeau said companies and governments must consider how technological disruption affects traditional jobs.

"The conversations we're having about how you do things right how you think about the positive impact, long-term, of the choices that we make is core to the kinds of conversations we have to be having whether we're in government, or in business," Trudeau said.

Amazon's new headquarters

Trudeau will also meet with Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, as that tech giant searches for a second headquarters.

Toronto is the only Canadian city among 20 locations in the runningto land the $5-billion facility.

One senior source downplayed the idea Trudeau is using the meeting to aggressively lobby Bezos on Toronto's behalf. The source said thatTrudeau would instead use this meeting to highlight other investment opportunities in Canada.

But speaking to reporters in San Francisco Thursday, Trudeau expressed a hope that the new facility would be built in Canada.

"The Amazon second headquarters would be a significant boonfor any city that got it," Trudeau said. "Toronto is a world class city with an incredible workforce, tremendous diversity, all the kinds of advantages that Amazon has laid out that it is looking for.

"I certainly hope that we get the H2Q hub."