From: Maclean’s
Canada and the U.S. plan to end the ‘tyranny’ of regulations that raise the costs of goods crossing the border
Robert Carberry is as passionate as it’s possible to imagine a bureaucrat who bears the unwieldy title of assistant secretary regulatory co-operation council secretariat. Sitting in a conference room at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, he speaks with the rapid-fire excitement of a person whose dreams are about to come true.
After 13 years of leaders pushing for Canada-U.S. regulatory co-operation—with only fitful progress to show for their efforts—it is about to arrive wholesale.
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In the slow-moving world of bureaucracies this promises to herald a new era: institutionalizing co-operation inside the regulatory bodies. Until now, the process has been driven from the centre: by Carberry’s office inside the Treasury Board Secretariat and the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
If the plan succeeds, the impacts for consumers could be potentially huge. “It’s going to ease the movement of products, lower the costs of manufacturing, and hopefully that translates into either lower costs or better products for the consumers,” said Carberry.