Annual Report April 1997 – March 1998

Highlights of the Year in Review

1997/98 saw the Parties to the AIT continue to engage in negotiations mandated by the Agreement and necessary for its implementation and for concluding the outstanding obligations in the Agreement.

In addition, as the Parties gain more experience with the working of the Agreement they are better able to identify and recommend efforts for streamlining the AIT and for increasing its effectiveness and relevance.

In terms of the specific negotiations on outstanding issues, the highlights for this year were:

• The conclusion of the negotiations of the procurement provisions that will apply to the MASH sector;
• contracting with a service provider for the development and operation of a national electronic tendering system;
• the continuation of negotiations to reduce the number of government entities excluded from the procurement rules;
• the adoption of Annex 604 (4) which lists all existing measures maintained by each Party that include some form of residency requirement;
• the adoption of Annex 606 which provides for the reconciliation of extra-provincial corporate registration and reporting requirements;
• the extension of the scope and coverage of the Agriculture and Food Goods Chapter to include measures involving technical barriers to trade in agricultural products for the following:
  • shipment of horticultural products in bulk containers;
  • absence of a Canada No. 1 small potato grade;
  • margarine colouring restrictions and other margarine standards;
  • standards regarding dairy blends and imitation dairy products; and
  • fluid milk standards and distribution;
• the agreement by Ministers of Energy to the legal text of the Energy Chapter, with the Chapter to come into effect upon the satisfactory resolution of outstanding issues by the Committee on Internal Trade; and
• the ratification of a Canada-wide accord on environmental harmonization which provides a framework for promoting cooperation between the Parties in environmental management. To ensure the effective functioning and continued relevance of the AIT, the Parties engaged in the following activities during 1996/97:
  • Completing the regulatory review of the transportation chapter;
  • advancing work toward the completion of a National Transportation Safety Code;
  • completing a listing of non-conforming environmental measures maintained by any Party;
  • adopting, through Protocol of Amendment #2, a number of corrections and clarifications to the text of the Agreement; and,
  • initiating a study to establish a system of measuring the performance of the Agreement.
• There is increasing anecdotal reference to complaints being resolved by informal consultations between Parties to the AIT. To date these remain unrecorded. Further, in 1997/98 15 disputes were formally initiated using the dispute settlement mechanisms provided for under the Agreement. Of these, 6 had been addressed by year end and 9 remain to be resolved.
• The following sections of this report provide details about the above, and other, activities undertaken under the AIT during the period 1997/98.