The Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) is an initiative between Canada and the United States with a mandate of working together "to promote economic growth, job creation, and benefits to our consumers and businesses through increased regulatory transparency and coordination" between the two countries.
Announced by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper in February 2011, the RCC recognizes that regulatory differences and duplicative procedures impose unnecessary requirements and costs on citizens, businesses and economies, thus slowing down trade and investment and limiting timely access to products. It therefore seeks to eliminate these unnecessary requirements, making it easier for Canadian and American firms to do business on both sides of the border.
The Canadian Senate Standing Committee on National Finance however, in its report entitled The Canada USA Price Gap recommended that "the Government of Canada, through the Canada–United States Regulatory Cooperation Council, continue to integrate the safety standards between Canada and the United States with the intent to reduce the price discrepancies without compromising the safety needs of the two countries (page vi and 27)." In his testimony before the Senate Committee, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said results of the bank's September 2011 survey showed a major price gap, with Canadians paying 11% more than Americans for identical goods. He notes that this was an improvement over April 2011 when the difference was 18%.
The agreement is not a legally binding treaty, and relies on the political will and ability of the executives of both governments to implement the terms of the agreement. These types of executive agreements are routine—on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
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