Annual Report April 2001 – March 2002

Highlights of the Year in Review

In 2001/2002, the Parties to the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) continued their efforts to fully implement the Agreement by pursuing the negotiations mandated by the Agreement and necessary for concluding the outstanding obligations in the Agreement. The Parties made every effort to schedule a meeting of the Committee on Internal Trade (CIT) during this reporting period and by the fiscal year end in March 2002 were discussing the possibility of a meeting to be held in June 2002, in the following reporting period. During this reporting period, officials held over 18 meetings and over 75 conference calls in pursuit of the objectives of fully implementing the AIT and of looking at the future of the AIT and ways for improving internal trade.

In terms of the specific activities undertaken, the highlights for this year were:

• continuing negotiations to reduce the number of government entities excluded from the procurement rules by working to finalize draft Annex 502.3 which will set out provisions for procurement by government entities of a commercial or industrial nature or those granted exclusive rights by a Party;
• continuing negotiations to clarify the Code of Conduct on Incentives;
• initiating the development of REGISTREX, an electronic gateway to facilitate extraprovincial corporate registration and reporting;
• continuing the development of a “post-July 1, 2001″ strategy on the full implementation of Chapter Seven (Labour Mobility);
• continuing the development of an agenda for further cooperation on consumer issues beyond the now completed AIT requirements;
• continuing negotiations to resolve the outstanding issue relative to the Energy Chapter concerning the nature and extent of carve-outs for regional economic development programs;
• implementing the second phase of a major public consultations project on improving internal trade which entailed convening a national conference entitled Strengthening Canada – Challenges for Internal Trade and Mobility in Toronto, May 31 and June 1, 2001;
• continuing to implement improvements to the Secretariat main web site; and
• design and implementation of the first annual survey of the Secretariat’s clientele.

In 2001/2002, 28 disputes were formally initiated using the dispute settlement mechanisms provided for under the Agreement. Of these, 15 had been addressed by year end and 13 were pending. In total, 152 disputes have been filed between the time the AIT came into force in July 1995 and the end of this reporting period, of which 122 have been resolved, 10 have been withdrawn or are inactive, and 20 are pending. Further, the average length of time to dispose of a dispute has been steadily dropping, from 6.2 months in 1995/96 to 4.2 months for disputes initiated in the current reporting period.

This results in an average of 4.3 months over the time since the Agreement came into effect. The following sections of this report provide details of the above and other activities undertaken under the AIT during the period 2001/2002.