Canada–European Union Regulatory Cooperation Forum - Overview
Overview
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) Between Canada and the European Union (PDF, 1.45 MB) entered into force provisionally on September 21, 2017.
CETA is Canada’s first bilateral trade agreement with a stand-alone chapter on regulatory cooperation. The chapter establishes the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF) to facilitate and promote regulatory cooperation between Canada and the European Union (EU). To achieve regulatory cooperation, the RCF will consider a broad range of regulatory measures to improve regulatory planning, promote transparency, and enhance the efficacy of regulations by seeking to reduce duplication and misalignment.
Infographic - Text version
Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF)
Structure: The RCF is part the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. On the EU side the work is led jointly by DG GROW and DG TRADE and on the Canadian side jointly by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and Global Affairs Canada.
Discussions: Discuss regulatory policy issues of mutual interest that the Parties have identified through consultations with stakeholders and regulators.
Partnership: Assist individual regulators to identify potential partners for cooperation activities and provide them with appropriate tools for that purpose.
Cooperation: Encourage the development of bilateral cooperation activities and, on the basis of information obtained from regulatory departments and agencies, review the progress, achievements and best practices of regulatory cooperation initiatives in specific sectors.
Voluntary: Government can regulate as usual. Regulators lead work plan items and hold decision making power.
Stakeholders: To inform their regulatory cooperation activities, including the exchanges of regulators at RCF meetings, both Parties have carried out consultations to collect views of European and Canadian stakeholders.
Moving forward: Continued dialogue, growing the work plan and building on successes.
If you’ve encountered a regulatory barrier, find out how to report it. Tell us how we can align regulations with our trading partners.
What we are doing
Current work plan
Current RCF work plan, published January 3, 2023.
Current items of interest
- Cooperation on topics of common interest to the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), published January 3, 2023.
- Certification of Small Solid Biomass Boilers in Canada, published January 3, 2023.
Past plans
- First RCF Work Plan (published June 28, 2019)
- Second RCF Work Plan (published October 23, 2020)
- Third RCF Work Plan (published June 28, 2021)
- Item of Interest- Certification of Small Solid Biomass Boilers in Canada (published November 26, 2021)
- Item of Interest- Cooperation on standardization topics of common interest to the SCC and CEN/CENELEC (published November 26, 2021)
Joint Statement
Canada and the EU released the Joint Statement by Regulators on Animal Welfare.
Completed consultations
From April to June 2022, input on potential CETA RCF Work Plan items was received through the Breaking down inter-jurisdictional regulatory barriers project in the Let’s Talk Federal Regulations online engagement platform. Visit the What We Heard report for more information on input that was received through the consultation.
For the results of previous consultations, visit Archived Reports and Guidance on the GCWiki.
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