Federal Action Plan to Strengthen Internal Trade

In recognition of the critical importance of the free flow of goods, services and labour in economic recovery, the Action Plan outlines an ambitious strategy to accelerate efforts to remove barriers to trade. It contains five key actions.

Action 1: Review of CFTA exceptions

• review the Government of Canada’s exceptions within the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) to streamline them as much as possible, eliminate unnecessary barriers and ensure a strengthened CFTA.
• include the full participation of all federal ministers responsible for Canada’s current exceptions in this exercise.

Action 2: Open and accessible data

• create a pan-Canadian Internal Trade Information Hub that will provide open and accessible data and information on the state of internal trade in Canada.
• assess data needs and data gaps with leading industry stakeholders as well as federal, provincial and territorial partners.
• develop new surveys and tools to target data gaps to further ensure open, accessible and timely trade data.

Action 3: Stakeholder engagement

• engage with leading trade experts and stakeholders from across Canada on opportunities and challenges in internal trade, focusing on identifying on-the-ground barriers and challenges that impact Canadian businesses and on efforts to enhance trade promotion in Canada.
• create an open, online submission portal for stakeholders so they can identify and share both challenges to and successes in internal trade directly with the federal government.

Action 4: Barrier identification

• fund and conduct comprehensive research to identify top barriers to trade in key sectors and develop concrete solutions to address them.
• report publicly on the state of internal trade in Canada, including on progress on federal and cooperative actions to reduce barriers to trade and increase trade promotion efforts.

Action 5: Enhancement of the ITS and the RCT

• identify opportunities for additional resources to enhance the capacity of the Internal Trade Secretariat and Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table to advance regulatory and internal trade cooperative efforts under the CFTA, with the agreement of all provinces and territories.