Ottawa – Senator David Tkachuk, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, welcomed news Friday that the federal government and provinces have adopted a number of Senate recommendations to eliminate internal trade barriers in a new free trade agreement.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development announced that a new agreement has been reached and included some of the recommendations of the committee.

The committee’s June 2016 report, Tear Down These Walls: Dismantling Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers, revealed that Canada’s international free trade agreements make it easier for foreign businesses to trade with Canada than for Canadian businesses to trade across provincial or territorial boundaries.

Senate recommendations governments have adopted include:

• A negative-list approach, which means goods and services can be freely traded between Canada’s regions unless they are specifically exempted.
• Providing governments with a formal mechanism to facilitate regulatory harmonization.
• Imposing significant monetary penalties for non-compliance with this agreement.

Although not all of the Senate’s recommendations have been adopted — particularly with regard to the free movement of alcohol across provincial borders — members of the committee congratulate the governments for taking these first steps toward a more profitable and equitable future.

The provinces have made tremendous progress in procurement, professional certification and negative listing. They are also to be congratulated for setting up timeframes for further progress in various areas. The committee will keep a close watch on these timeframes and will have hearings from time to time to monitor the progress being made toward meeting them.

Quotes

“This is a significant achievement for the Senate, the government and for all Canadians. It will take time to see the real effects of this agreement, but we are thrilled that the provincial, territorial and federal governments have heeded to our call to create better access to the domestic market for Canadian businesses.”

- Senator David Tkachuk, Chair of the committee

“The Canadian Free Trade Agreement is the most comprehensive reform to Canada’s internal market in over 20 years – it will help facilitate trade across our country and make it easier for Canadian firms to conduct business. The committee will be following closely the implementation of this agreement.”

- Senator Joseph A. Day, Deputy Chair of the committee

Associated Links

• Read the report, Tear Down These Walls: Dismantling Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers.
• Discover the Top 10 Weirdest Barriers to Trade.
• Follow the committee on social media using the hashtag #BANC.

For more information, please contact:

Tony Spears
Chief, Writer and Media Relations
Senate of Canada
613-302-1517
Tony.spears@sen.parl.gc.ca