Excerpted from Canada, U.S. struggling to reach agreement to agree on product rules by John Ibbitson in the Globe and Mail Monday, October 28, 2012
An ambitious plan to harmonize product regulations between Canada and the United States has become all process, few results. But there is hope.
The Regulatory Cooperation Council – announced with much fanfare last December by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama as part of the Beyond the Border initiative – has little to show for its efforts, thanks in part to the distraction of the American election and in part to entrenched interests…
While harmonizing existing regulations may be an ambition too far, a framework agreement is in the works that would commit both sides to working together on future regulations.
While we may never see a continental standard for toothpaste, we could see one for hydrogen-powered vehicles, if such a machine ever reaches the market.
It’s a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty sort of thing. But even half a glass is better than none.
Colin Robertson, the former Canadian diplomat who is probably better informed on cross-border issues than anyone not actually on the negotiating teams, is a glass-half-full kind of guy.
“In terms of immediate progress, they don’t have much to show” for their efforts, he acknowledged in an interview. But if the two sides can entrench a culture of future co-operation, “it promises to be revolutionary,” he believes. After all, he observed, “if the regulators on both sides had been talking to each other,” when drawing up rules already on the books, “we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
If the RCC truly does its job, its greatest achievement will be to encourage a culture of trust, so that if one side does decide one day to change the rules on fortifying cereals, both sides will work together to achieve common standards…