Transcript Presentation

WTO Workshop on
Regulatory Cooperation
NOVEMBER 2011
Content.
I. Origins of Regulatory Cooperation in
Mexico.
II. The Mexican Experience.
III.
Current
activities
international arena.
in
the
IV. Lessons learned.
V. Challenges ahead.
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II. Origins of Regulatory Cooperation.
• Federal Law on Metrology
Standardization (LFMN).
• North
American
Agreement.
Free
and
Trade
• WTO TBT and SPS Agreements.
• Other FTA´s.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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;
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Standards/Technical Regulations /Conformity assessment;
Administrative simplification;
Electro technical products;
Pharmaceutical/Cosmetic;
Agriculture and livestock; and
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
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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:
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food safety
E-health
Safety regulations in transportation
Oil and gas
Nanotechnologies
Recognition of laboratories
E-certification at factories
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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.
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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.
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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.
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