Click "NEXT" to continue.
Have you heard this crazy thing about free trade in Canada? It is actually easier for a winery in California to send a case of wine into Alberta than for a BC winery to do the same—all because of the existing trade agreement between the provinces, which has been in effect since 1995. Despite the fact that 40% of Canada’s exports are actually to other provinces, the regulatory environment on trade is completely restrictive. And it’s not just wine and beer that have been affected. Everything from refrigerators to artisanal cheese has had barriers to their trade, from outright restrictions to enormous amounts of red tape. In the previous trade agreement, the provinces had to list all of the trade items that were to be allowed to pass freely over the borders, and it was inevitable that some items were left off the list. Wine and beer, for example, have been left off the list since 1928, when a law was enacted that allowed provincial governments to control alcohol sales across their borders. Slow-moving change makes it understandable why these details have never come off the books On July 1, 2017, Canada’s 150th birthday, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, or CFTA, was brought into effect. It uses a “negative list” approach. Essentially, jurisdictions will lift all barriers to trade, but must now list specific exceptions. Terry Witten, a prominent trade lawyer, says, “The solution is a modern and ambitious agreement, and one that will primarily reduce regulatory barriers. It promises to reduce or eliminate red tape for businesses, and this will allow for freer movement of workers in the trades and working across boundaries. Also, businesses can bid on work in different provinces.” To others, the CFTA sounds better in theory. Instead of having to depend on a list of approved trade items, everything is fair for export, unless there’s a mention of it in the exceptions list. But in all the hype about how great this agreement is, no one mentions the fact that there are 160 pages of exceptions! Because of this, some think that instead of just dropping regulations from almost 100 years ago, they’ve created more procedures and processes. In response to critics, the government has now created a CFTA working group to devise a solution. Sandy Ford, an activist and business owner, is skeptical. “This is really just creating one more step instead of simply lifting all restrictions,” she says. Really, in the end, all we can hope for is that a more liberal process will be forthcoming, because now it is only marginally better than it was before!
This playbar will not appear in the official test.