• Promoting Sales Tax Fairness – NRF supports a level playing field where all retailers are required to collect sales tax regardless of whether they sell their merchandise through bricks-and-mortar stores, through the mail or over the Internet. Equal application of sales tax laws would help protect Main Street jobs currently being lost because of the impact of online competition.
• Expanding Free Trade – NRF opposes tariffs and other trade barriers that drive up the prices consumers pay for imported merchandise. Measures targeted at specific countries such as China invariably drive retail sourcing to other foreign suppliers rather than protecting or creating U.S. jobs because most of the products in question are no longer made in the United States in commercial quantities or at affordable prices.
• Protecting Consumer Privacy – Retailers take their customers' privacy very seriously and have an excellent track record of using customers' information responsibly. But with a large number of privacy bills introduced recently on Capitol Hill, NRF is concerned that overly broad, one-size-fits-all approaches could hamper innovations that have improved the public's shopping experience. NRF supports responsible self-regulation as the most effective means to protect consumers while allowing retailers the flexibility needed to better serve their customers.
• Faster Visas for Foreign Tourists – NRF is calling on the State Department to reform an antiquated process that costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars by making it difficult for many foreign tourists to obtain visas needed to come to the United States and shop. Chinese tourists spend an average $6,000 during a U.S. visit – more than twice United Kingdom tourists – but it takes two months for the State Department to process their visa applications. NRF is a member of the Discover America Partnership coalition, which wants to reduce the wait to 10 days.
As the world's largest retail trade association and the voice of retail worldwide, the National Retail Federation's global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries abroad. In the United States, NRF represents the breadth and diversity of an industry with more than 1.6 million American companies that employ nearly 25 million workers and generated 2010 sales of $2.4 trillion.
National Retail Federation
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