Regulatory barriers seen as biggest block to Canadia's trade

Regulatory barriers instead of tariffs or quotas are the biggest threat to Canada's trade, said a report released on Wednesday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The report, entitled Canada's Next Top Trade Barrier: Taking International Regulatory Cooperation Seriously, shed a harsh light on current issues surrounding regulatory cooperation between Canada and its trading partners and provides the federal government with a series of recommendations for improving Canada's regulatory regime.

"Canadian companies are losing millions of dollars adjusting to minute regulations in other jurisdictions, a situation that undermines Canada's competitiveness and must be resolved," said the report.

One of the key elements that comes out of this report was that regulatory barriers don't happen during deals between nations -- they start right here at home, with domestic policies, said Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Canada is moving along nicely on trade agreements, which contribute to reduced tariffs on trade. But Beatty said "if companies are still facing insurmountable or very expensive regulatory barriers, we haven't advanced much at all."

The report showed that companies looking to import or export currently need to spend on hiring the expertise to scope out and learn about the regulations in foreign markets, also known as information costs.

In most cases, Canadian companies need to pay adjustment costs to have their product meet foreign standards. Finally, they also need to spend on conformity assessment costs to prove to foreign regulators that their products are now up to par.

The report said the differences create an artificial trade barrier that some companies just cannot overcome.

"In some cases, we're looking at a 1,700- percent increase in price for a Canadian product abroad, once you factor in the costs of regulatory conformity. However, most of these barriers could easily be adapted to allow a freer flow of goods to and from foreign markets," Beatty said.

He said that the Canadian government can provide the leadership to remove these hurdles.

By building regulatory cooperation measures into trade agreements and by providing industry with dashboards to evaluate progress, Canada can make its companies more competitive, he added.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is the vital connection between business and the federal government. With a network of over 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade, it represents 200,000 businesses of all sizes in all sectors of the economy and in all regions. Endit