Harmonizing Regulations Could Be Big Win For NAFTA — and Trump

Earlier this week in Arizona, the president of the United States took yet another opportunity to bash the North American Free Trade Agreement. Notwithstanding his rally rhetoric, negotiators are hard at work getting ready for the second round of meetings scheduled for Mexico City. As the work progresses, the Canadian American Business Council is reiterating our call for regulatory harmony.

It seems like such a simple thing: make sure the rules and regulations involved in doing cross-border business are at least relatively closely aligned on both sides of the border. But the truth is, they are often miles apart in the very same industries, creating thick layers of red tape that eat into businesses’ productivity and profits in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Eliminating layers of red tape has been critically necessary for years, and now it represents a great way to improve and enhance NAFTA.

I spoke to Bloomberg BNA about the current regulatory discrepancies and how the CABC is pushing for mutual recognition of rules between the U.S. and Canada — and what a political win such harmonization could represent for President Donald Trump. Let’s face it — he needs one.

Canada’s foreign affairs minister is also advocating for regulatory harmonization. Just before the renegotiations got under way, Chrystia Freeland delivered a speech in Ottawa calling for the harmonization of regulations. “We share this U.S. administration’s desire to liberate our companies from needless bureaucracy, and this negotiation is a welcome chance to act on that goal,” Freeland said.