Call for proposals for regulatory cooperation activities in the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF) under CETA

Deadline: Feb 16, 2018  
CALL EXPIRED

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) entered into force provisionally on 21 September 2017. Work is now underway to set up its institutional structure to govern the different aspects of the agreement and ensure its correct implementation.

In its institutional structure, CETA includes a mechanism to develop further voluntary regulatory cooperation between the parties, called the Regulatory Cooperation Forum (RCF).

Cooperation in the RCF is always voluntary and in no way limits the ability of the parties to carry out their own regulatory, legislative and policy activities.

Chapter 21 of CETA defines a broad scope for such activities under the RCF, such as:

• regulatory measures related to technical barriers to trade 
• sanitary phytosanitary aspects
• trade in services, trade and sustainable development 
• trade and labour
• trade and environment

The objectives are to:

• contribute to the protection of human life, health or safety, animal or plant life or health and the environment
• avoid and reduce unnecessary regulatory differences
• reduce administrative burden and unnecessary duplication

To prepare the first meeting of the RCF tentatively scheduled to take place mid-2018, the Commission is seeking to develop a list of potential topics where EU and Canadian regulators can meaningfully cooperate in the future. This list of topics could guide the exchanges of regulators in future RCF meetings.

With this objective in mind, the Commission invites input from all stakeholders and interested parties, including representatives from academia, think-tanks, civil society, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, businesses, consumer and other organisations in identifying sectors/issues where there is a high interest for regulatory cooperation with Canada, for example, in relation to new technological developments. Another area where the EU and Canada can work together could be to promote common regulatory approaches in international forums.

The Commission would like to stress that proposals in this regard should be forward looking and not duplicate present activities of cooperation covered by other parts of the agreement.

We encourage joint submissions from associations and organisations representing different stakeholders from the EU and Canada.

Please send your proposal to TRADE-E1-US-CANADA-EVENTS@ec.europa.eu and GROW-A4@ec.europa.eu by 16 February 2018.

Questions can also be addressed to the same email addresses.