[LINK] "The trade walls that divide us"

[rfmcdonald]

At the Globe and Mail, Barrie McKenna writes about the surprisingly strong and high barriers to free trade between Canadian provinces. The European Union, in many respects, is more internally integrated than Canada.

All levels of government are guilty, and all of us pay the price. A recent back-of-the-envelope calculation by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute puts the tally of internal trade barriers at 0.5 per cent of GDP, or $8-billion a year. Getting rid of them would put nearly $1,000 into the pockets of a family of four.

The list of these costly barriers is frustratingly long. Alberta insists that only provincially certified welders assemble components used in the oil sands and other projects. Federal law bars people from ordering wine directly from another province. Quebec requires all butter sold in the province to be wrapped in foil. B.C. won’t let Ontario buses on its roads because of differing brake standards. The no-brainer of creating a national securities regulator has become a decades-long saga.

Governments, particularly at the provincial and municipal level, continue to steer big purchases to local suppliers. Ontario and Quebec, for example, are currently doling out generous subsidies to wind and solar power producers, but only if they source most of their goods and services at home.

In some cases, it’s now easier to do business internationally than inside the country. Carole Presseault, vice-president of government and regulatory affairs for the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, argues that U.S. accountants face fewer restrictions working in Ontario than accountants from elsewhere in Canada.

That’s because Ontario, like virtually every other province, can indefinitely keep out professionals certified in another province as long is it lists the restrictions and makes a case why they’re needed. Ontario deems that Certified Public Accountants and Certified Management Accountants from the rest of Canada aren’t fit to work in the province.

The good news is that the current system may be buckling under the weight of its own inefficiency. International trade deals, such as the proposed Canada-EU trade treaty, are forcing negotiators to confront many remaining barriers.