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Progress Forward: Signing of the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement

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Progress Forward: Signing of the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement

Trade & Transportation Provincial Policy Federal Policy

Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement on the Sale of Goods (2025)

The Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement on the Sale of Goods (CMRA) is an unparalleled agreement negotiated by federal, provincial, and territorial governments. It reduces barriers to the sale of goods across Canada by ensuring that a product that may be lawfully sold in one province or territory may be sold across Canada without having to meet further requirements – unless a government has identified a specific rule that still applies.

Purpose

Each of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments across Canada regulate the sale of goods to protect health, safety, and the environment, among other reasons. But when rules differ or are duplicative between jurisdictions, they can create extra costs and delays for businesses. The CMRA helps resolve this by allowing a good that meets the rules in one province or territory to be sold in others. Governments can still choose to apply a specific rule by listing it in their annexes.

Key Benefits

Less Complexity: Businesses no longer need to review the rules in 14 different jurisdictions to determine which regulatory requirements might apply to sell goods across the country.

Lower costs: Companies operating across multiple provinces will have lower compliance costs as they avoid duplicative testing, certification, and paperwork.

Production Efficiencies: Companies no longer need to adjust their products to meet different provincial or territorial requirements, thereby saving time, increasing productivity, and lowering costs.

Small business benefits: Small and medium-sized businesses that might lack the resources to navigate multiple regulatory systems will especially benefit from having more seamless access to a larger domestic market.

More consumer choice and lower prices: As businesses benefit from these new domestic opportunities, Canadians should see greater product choice and lower prices across the country.

Transparency: Businesses will know whether they must meet an additional requirement to sell a good in another province or territory. Any such requirements are listed in the annexes of the CMRA. If no requirements are listed, the product may be sold there.

How It Works

The CMRA applies to the sale of a wide range of goods – including appliances, industrial machinery, vehicles, electronics, furniture, clothing, household goods, etc.

If a good may be lawfully sold in one province or territory, it may be sold across the country without having to meet additional testing,  certification or other requirements – unless a government has identified a specific requirement it will retain.

What is Not Covered

Certain types of goods are not covered by the CMRA including food, live animals, alcoholic beverages, cannabis, tobacco, and plants.

The CMRA does not currently apply to how a good is sold, or who may sell or purchase it.

Background

The CMRA was developed in response to direction from First Ministers and the ministerial  Committee on Internal Trade (CIT). It builds on the work of the Regulatory Reconciliation and Cooperation Table (RCT), reflecting a shared commitment to eliminate impediments to domestic trade in Canada, and further establishing Canada as an international leader in reducing domestic trade barriers.

The CMRA aligns with the legislation recently adopted by many governments across Canada to remove interprovincial trade barriers and unlock economic opportunities for Canadian businesses. The full document can be viewed online.

The following Parties have signed the CMRA: Alberta, British Columbia, Canada, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec and Saskatchewan. 

Why this Matters

Chambers of Commerce have been calling for collaboration across levels of government for mutual recognition for years; signing the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement is another step forward. "Businesses have been calling for leadership from federal and provincial governments to make progress on removing barriers to internal trade, and, in today’s fragile economic environment, momentum isn’t optional, it’s essential."- Candace Laing, President and CEO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

This agreement is a positive step toward free movement of goods across the country, reducing fragmentation and lowering costs for Canadian businesses and signaling follow-through on government promises. '

As a Chamber of Commerce, we look forward to the implementation of these plans, along with the expansion to cover all goods, including good and alcohol, not covered in the CMRA that our local Chamber continues to advocate for. 

We have been calling for improved internal trade to help workforce mobility, supply chain certainty and improved domestic market access in order for our business community to compete and grow.

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