Interprovincial trade barriers are falling. But rewriting old rules will
The collapse of talks with the United States has added urgency to reducing trade barriers within Canada. But experts say it’s not a simple fix.
Efforts to boost interprovincial trade have ramped up recently. Nine provinces agreed last month to allow direct-to-consumer alcohol sales across provincial lines, for example.
But even this kind of progress, dealing with a niche side of the booze industry, shows the challenges of opening up sales. Some provinces have added on extra charges and rules, on top of what producers face in their home province.
“Having to pay two wholesale markups — that’s just lunacy,” said Jeff Guignard, chief executive officer of Wine Growers British Columbia.
Forcing B.C. wineries to also register in other provinces, just to mail wine there, goes against the push to open up trade within Canada, he said.
Lauren Skinner Buksevics, managing director of Painted Rock Estate Winery in Whistler, B.C., says U.S. tariffs mean her American partner will no longer import her wines. But that market is small compared to the potential Canadian market that still faces interprovincial trade barriers.
“It’s just noise, right? And bureaucratic nonsense that doesn’t need to happen,” said Guignard.
“For too long we’ve treated every province as though it’s a completely different economy, which it is not. We’re talking about one Canadian economy.”
The potential benefits of simplifying domestic trade are substantial.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that removing internal trade barriers could boost Canada’s real gross domestic product upwards of seven per cent, or about $210 billion, over the long term.
Finance ministers met in P.E.I. today to talk trade and more. CBC’s Cody MacKay was there and has this report.
CIBC put out a less optimistic figure in March: a potential one per cent boost to the GDP. But the bank noted that it would still be helpful and is very much worth pursuing.
Federal and provincial ministers have been meeting in Iqaluit this week to try and push forward that “one Canadian economy” and work on removing barriers.
Ahead of the meeting, Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement that while progress has already been made, there’s much more to do as the United States fundamentally changes its approach to trade.
Priorities at the meeting included working toward an agreement on a freer flow of services across the country by the end of the year, harmonizing the approval process for prefabricated homes and new building materials, and making it easier to trade food in Canada.
The renewed push on removing provincial barriers is welcome, said Corinne Pohlmann,…
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