December 7, 2011 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama today unveiled two action plans designed to speed up legitimate trade and travel, improve security in North America, and align regulatory approaches between the two countries.
"Billions of dollars worth of goods and hundreds of thousands of people cross our shared border every day," Harper stated in a release. "Moving security to the perimeter of our continent will transform our border and create jobs and growth in Canada by improving the flow of goods and people between our two countries."
The Action Plan on Perimeter Security and Economic Competiveness focuses on four areas of cooperation: addressing threats early; facilitating trade, economic growth and jobs; integrating cross-border law enforcement; and improving critical infrastructure and cyber-security.
The Action Plan on Regulatory Cooperation will help reduce barriers to trade, lower costs for consumers and business, and create economic opportunities on both sides of the border. It identifies 29 initiatives where Canada and the U.S. will align their regulatory approaches in the areas of agriculture and food, transportation, health and personal care products, chemical management, the environment, and other cross-sectoral areas, while not compromising our health, safety or environmental protection standards.
The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) and the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) both had input into the plan through the Canada-United States Regulation Cooperation Council (RCC).
The Canadian Pork Council issued a press release this afternoon saying it is pleased that the industry's input to the RCC has been fully covered in the plan.
"The Canadian swine industry is very supportive of cooperation activities that would help to eliminate or reduce unnecessary regulatory divergences between Canada and the United States," CPC chair Jurgen Preugschas stated. "The industry is pleased the RCC accepted CPC's recommendations that will improve the trading climate and competiveness of Canadian pork."
"The United States is our number one customer for pork and live animals and the RCC's Joint Action Plan offers the North American hog sector the opportunity to harmonize standards and production technology, consistent with an already highly integrated market," he added.
In cooperation with the CCA, the CPC highlighted the importance of regulatory cooperation in areas such as: the implementation of electronic export certificates for meat and live animals crossing the U.S./Canada border; harmonization of the approval process for veterinary drugs, and; mutually recognizable zoning systems and veterinary equivalency.
The CCA also welcomed the news. The Canadian beef industry exports approximately 40 per cent of its production and 80 per cent of that goes to the United States, CCA president Travis Toews stated in a separate release.
"We have an immense interest in ensuring that the Canada-U.S. border operates as efficiently as possible," he said.
Canadian beef and cattle exports to the U.S. are projected to total $1.6 billion in 2011. Farm cash receipts for cattle and calves are projected to surpass $6.5 billion in 2011 and the beef industry's contribution to the Canadian economy is projected to reach $26.2 billion, the CCA noted.
Under today's announcement, there are commitments to:
· implement electronic border-related document transmission and receipt of clearance decisions for food and meat products no later than December 2013;
· reduce and eliminate duplicate meat inspections at the border through enhanced meat safety equivalence agreements;
· align Canadian and U.S. approaches to the naming of meat cuts;
· align application and review processes for veterinary drug approvals including efforts to establish identical maximum drug residue limits in both countries;
· and a number of other initiatives both within agriculture and related to movement of people and transporters across sectors.
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