CFA provided a submission to the CUSMA consultation with the recommendations below:
- Maintain the existing rules-based framework that is part of CUSMA.
- Address non-tariff trade barriers and bolster regulatory harmonization through the Regulatory Cooperation Council.
- Continue to ensure that sanitary and phytosanitary measures are science based. The measures must be applied in a clear, predictable, non-discriminatory way.
- Address the extra-territorial impact of local trade barriers that affect the movement of goods between countries (e.g., California’s Proposition 12).
- Continue to allow parties to set phytosanitary measures that follow WTO rights and obligations while protecting food safety and animal health.
- Chapter 31 of CUSMA—dispute settlement—must remain in place.
- Create an effective mechanism that ensures unwarranted trade barriers are addressed quickly.
- Continue to improve the import and export processes between countries that emphasize automation.
- Review articles to ensure they are evidence based and limit unneeded redundancies.
- Increase competitive market opportunities for agricultural goods while respecting the needs of supply management.
- Ensure proper labelling standards, including the labeling of country of origin, to ensure that consumers are provided with sound, factual information about the product they are purchasing.
- Ensure that CBSA and CFIA are adequately resourced and trained to enforce CUSMA’s terms.
- Maintaining or expanding Canada’s market access to the US market which must be “wholly obtained” from sugar beets.