Cablegate: Trilateral Regulatory Cooperation Meeting Under
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS OTTAWA 003726
SIPDIS
PASS TO COMMERCE FOR GERI WORD, OMB/OIRA FOR ALEX HUNT
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD PGOV CA MX SIPDIS
SUBJECT: TRILATERAL REGULATORY COOPERATION MEETING UNDER
SPP: INFORMATION SHARING
REF: OTTAWA 1199
1. On December 9, Canadian, Mexican and U.S. officials met
in Ottawa to discuss possibilities for regulatory cooperation
under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North
America (SPP). The Canadians, who had proposed and organized
the meeting, seem enthusiastic about the prospects for
engagement under the SPP. The discussions focused on
explaining the three countries' regulatory systems, and
during the course of these explanations delegates noted
similarities and differences. Mexico's regulatory system is
different from the U.S. and Canadian systems (which are
parallel in many ways), and this difference could pose
challenges.
2. At the meeting, the participants agreed to provide
comments by mid-January 2006 on Canada's draft proposal
"North American Regulatory Cooperation Framework: The Way
Forward" (for the USG, OMB's Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs representative will coordinate.)
Participants anticipate the creation of a core working group
by late January or early February. This core working group
will focus at first on mapping out current cooperative
arrangements between the three governments that can be used
as examples and test cases in the SPP regulatory cooperation
process. The core working group will also look at other
frameworks (such as the U.S.-EU regulatory cooperation
framework) for insights into trilateral options under SPP.
At the meeting, participants tentatively agreed to plan a
trilateral symposium for sometime in the Spring
(March/April), to be held in either Washington, DC or Mexico.
While representation at the symposium has not been decided
(e.g. government, industry, academics or a combination
thereof), participants were tasked with collecting
suggestions of possible participants in the symposium.
3. The United States delegation was headed by Alex Hunt from
the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA); Embassy and Department of
Commerce officials also participated in the meeting. Mexican
representatives included officials from the Mexican Embassy
in Ottawa, from Mexico's Federal Regulatory Improvement
Commission (COFEMER), as well as an official from the Mexican
Office of the Treasury. The Canadians, who proposed and
organized the meeting, included officials from the Privy
Council Office, Industry Canada, and International Trade.
Embassy econ staff also met with Ottawa-based representatives
from this meeting at their invitation on December 14, to
clarify the timeline for the proposed working group and
regulatory cooperation framework, to further explore the role
of the Canadian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on the
Scrutiny of Regulation, and to discuss general options for
going forward.
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa
WILKINS