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WTO Workshop on Regulatory Cooperation

Learn about Mexico's regulatory cooperation experience, its international efforts, and lessons learned. Explore challenges ahead and the importance of collaboration.

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WTO Workshop on Regulatory Cooperation

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  1. WTO Workshop onRegulatory Cooperation NOVEMBER 2011

  2. Content. I. Origins of Regulatory Cooperation in Mexico. II. The Mexican Experience. III. Current activities in the international arena. IV. Lessons learned. V. Challenges ahead. 2

  3. II. Origins of Regulatory Cooperation. • Federal Law on Metrology and Standardization (LFMN). • North American Free Trade Agreement. • WTO TBT and SPS Agreements. • Other FTA´s. 3

  4. II. The Mexican Experience. • Harmonization: out of 878 technical regulations (NOM), only 132 (15%) are equivalent to international standards. • Mutual Recognition Agreements: • Governments: 4 • Certification bodies: 7 • Testing laboratories: 15 4

  5. III. Efforts on International Forums. • NAFTA – High Level Regulatory Cooperation Council (HLRCC). • On August 10th of 2009, the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, made a commitment to strengthen and expand the work on regulatory cooperation as part of the efforts directed to making the North American region more competitive. • From this commitment, on May 19th of 2010, the Presidents of Mexico and the United States of America instructed the creation of the HLRCC. • On March 3rd of 2011, Mexico and the U.S. concluded the Terms of Reference of the Council. 5

  6. III. Efforts on International Forums. • Six goals of the HLRCC: • Make regulations more compatible and simple; • Increase regulatory transparency; • Promote public participation; • Improve the analysis of regulations; • Link regulatory cooperation to improved border-crossing and customs procedures; and • Increase technical cooperation. • Public Consultation • Both countries agreed to develop a Wok Plan that would be based on the public comments. Each country performed a public consultation oriented towards generating proposals for increasing the region’s competitiveness through the reduction or elimination of unnecessary costs. 6

  7. III. Efforts on International Forums. The U.S. consultation ended on April 18th of 2011 and received 48 comments, which primarily focused on the following subjects: • Frontier measures and tariff classifications; • Vehicles; • Consumption goods; • Food safety; • Other agricultural issues; and • Pesticides. Mexico’s consultation ended on May 15th of 2011 and received 252 comments, which primarily focused on the following subjects: Commerce/Customs; • Standards/Technical Regulations /Conformity assessment; • Administrative simplification; • Electro technical products; • Pharmaceutical/Cosmetic; • Agriculture and livestock; and • Sanitary and phytosanitary measures. 7

  8. III. Efforts on International Forums. The Work Plan is an outline of the activities to be carried out by the HRLCC for a period of two years (It will be reviewed and modified as appropriate, on an annual basis). Possible subjects: • food safety • E-health • Safety regulations in transportation • Oil and gas • Nanotechnologies • Recognition of laboratories • E-certification at factories 8

  9. III. Efforts on International Forums. • Latin Arch Forum: • The forum represents the way of optimizing the commercial exchange among member countries and, increase trade, investment, and cooperation with Asian Pacific economies. • The members are Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. • One of the goals of the TBT group is to increase transparency, regulatory cooperation and technical cooperation. 9

  10. IV. Lessons learned. • Private sector support facilitate the identification of priorities and type of activities subject to regulatory cooperation. • One-size not always fits all – analyze the best for each sector. • Essential: confidence building among regulators and technical assistance. • Need of political involvement and definition of priorities. • Assign human resources for the proper analysis. 10

  11. V. Challenges. • Define priorities, activities and countries/regions. • Convince regulators and private sector (sometimes protectionists). • Keep it as a priority on the trade agenda. • Use it as a good regulatory practice. 11

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