Canada reaffirms commitment to remove trade barriers within the country

The Government of Canada today applauded progress on reducing barriers to trade between provinces and territories and reaffirmed its commitment to working together to accelerate progress in breaking down barriers to trade within Canada.

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade, welcomed today's announcement by the Council of the Federation that provinces and territories have agreed in principle to significantly increase the amount of alcohol that individuals can bring with them for personal use when crossing provincial/territorial boundaries.

Minister LeBlanc also recognized this important step forward as a key outcome of the collaborative efforts between the Government of Canada and the provincial and territorial governments. He noted that while this is a good step forward, more can be done by the provinces and territories to enhance trade in alcoholic beverages within Canada, including expanding direct-to-consumer sales of alcohol across the country.

The Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government, in his capacity as Minister responsible for coordinating Canada's domestic and international regulatory cooperation efforts, highlighted the release of a two-year work plan to reconcile regulatory barriers to trade between provinces and territories. The work plan, developed by the Canadian Free Trade Agreement's Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table, identifies 23 items for action, including reconciling occupational health and safety regulations and harmonizing weight and size restrictions in the trucking sector.

The Government of Canada showed particular leadership in reducing regulatory barriers, and has already completed two of the 23 items on the work plan, which will come into force through the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations on January 15, 2019:

• The scope of products that can be labelled with the Canada Organic Logo will be expanded to include aquaculture products.
• Inspection requirements for apples, potatoes and blueberries that apply only to those products when produced in certain provinces will be repealed.