Annual Report April 2002 – March 2003

Highlights of the Year in Review

In 2002/2003, 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 Committee on Internal Trade (CIT) met once during the reporting period on June 21, 2002. In addition, officials held numerous meetings and conference calls in pursuit of the objectives of fully implementing the AIT.

A major highlight of the year was the preparation of the November 2002 Report on the Future of the AIT. The Report was prepared in response to direction given by CIT ministers in June 2002 for the Internal Trade Secretariat to develop an assessment of specific aspects of the Agreement with a view to improving internal trade within Canada. The Report included input from most CIT ministers and drew upon issues raised by the participants in the 2000/2001 public consultations process as well as by the Parties and other stakeholders in past years.

The November 2002 Report was distributed to ministers with the commitment of officials to review the initiatives proposed and to develop specific recommendations and an action plan for the consideration of the CIT. That work has been completed and ministers will be asked at the next CIT meeting to consider a forward agenda encompassing both broad and specific initiatives proposed by a number of sources, including CIT ministers.

Other highlights for this year include:

• approval of the text of a new annex covering crown corporations of a commercial or industrial nature or which have been granted exclusive rights by a Party;
• initiation of the reviews mandated under Article 516 of the Procurement Chapter Five (Procurement);
• approval by the CIT of clarifications and improvements to the Code of Conduct on Incentives (Annex 608.3);
• implementation of REGISTREX, a single window for links to the corporate registries of the federal, provincial and territorial governments;
• broadening of Chapter Seven (Labour Mobility) implementation activities, including the initiation of:
  • a review of the Quebec approach to granting equivalencies in order to improve general understanding and acceptance by regulatory bodies of that Party’s approach,
  • a review of current mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) to determine the extent of exclusion of foreign-trained workers and approaches for recognition of foreign qualifications between Parties,
  • a review of the accessibility and effectiveness of the Chapter Seven dispute resolution mechanism, and
  • development of a framework for monitoring and assessment of the effectiveness of Chapter Seven;
• development of proposals for extending consumer charge-back rights to all forms of distance sales;
• continued work on future cooperative action on consumer issues including: electronic commerce, market-based consumer redress, alternative consumer credit markets; and collection agencies;
• establishment of an industry-led National Wine Standards Committee (WSC) to continue work on developing wine standards and make recommendations on respective enforcement policies and procedures;
• development of options for resolving the outstanding issue of regional economic development measures relating to petroleum oil and gas for further consideration by Energy ministers;
• completion of work on developing more uniform national standards for the weight and dimension limits of heavy vehicles;
• approval of National Safety Code standards for Compliance Review – Facility Audits; and new regulations under the National Safety Code Standards on Hours of Service and Load Security;
• endorsement of the Canada-wide Standards for dioxins and furans emissions from iron sintering plants and from steel manufacturing electric arc furnaces under the Canada-Wide Accord on environmental harmonization; and
• implementation of the second annual survey of the Secretariat’s clientele.

In 2002/2003, 22 disputes were formally initiated using the dispute settlement mechanisms provided for under the Agreement. Of these, 17 had been addressed by year end and 5 were pending. In total, 175 disputes have been filed between the time the AIT came into force in July 1995 and the end of this reporting period, of which 154 have been resolved, 10 have been withdrawn or are inactive, and 11 are pending. Further, the average length of time to dispose of a dispute has been steadily dropping, from a high of 6.7 months in 1996/97 to 4.4 months for disputes initiated in the current reporting period. This results in an average of 5.3 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 2002/2003.