Issues to Watch 2026 – Interprovincial Trade
For years, businesses have been held back by a patchwork of rules that can often make it harder to move goods across provincial borders than across international ones. The economic cost has been well-documented: internal trade barriers are estimated to reduce Canada’s GDP by tens of billions of dollars each year.
The introduction of tariffs by the U.S. administration provided a unique opportunity for Canada to get its house in order. The growing calls to ‘support local’ and ‘buy Canadian’, catalyzed all provinces, territories, and the federal government to come together and negotiate the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement (CMRA) – which came into effect December 2025.
The business community has long called for a simple principle: if a product is approved for sale in one province, it should be approved in all provinces. Mutual recognition is a proven international best practice. By advancing a more consistent framework for recognizing goods across provinces, governments are taking an important step toward reducing duplication, lowering costs, and giving businesses—especially small and mid-sized firms—the ability to grow.
Economic analysis shows that mutual recognition has the potential to increase Canada’s GDP by 7.9%, unlocking up to $200 billion annually. As we seek to diversify away from the United States and create a more resilient and unified Canadian economy, the adoption of the CMRA by B.C. business will be crucial.
While the CMRA is worth celebrating, we must not rest on our laurels and instead continue the important work towards further integration and opportunity domestically. This first iteration of the CMRA does nothing to lower the barriers on the interprovincial trade of food or alcohol. Nor does it improve labour mobility. For example, it doesn't apply to credential recognition for provincially regulated professionals like healthcare.
Food and beverage processing is the second largest manufacturing sector in B.C. by sales, producing over $12.6 billion in 2021. More than 40,000 British Columbians are employed by the food and beverage processing sector.
Nine provinces, including B.C., and one territory signed an MOU this summer that sets out to explore ways to improve the flow of alcoholic beverages across Canada. The parties have the intention of removing barriers to internal alcohol trade by May this year.
Jeff Guidnard, CEO of WineBC, told Global News that the signing of the CMRA is not the announcement they’ve been waiting for and that they need governments to go the rest of the way.
“The good news here is that we have the federal government and all of our provincial governments and territories aligning and saying, ‘Okay, we do need to keep working at tearing down these interprovincial barriers.’ But for some reason it is still easier to ship a case of wine down to Texas than it is next door to Alberta,” Guidnard said.
“Canadians don't even realize that we have world-class potential here, and it's time for us to take our place among the premium wine destinations around the world, but it starts with breaking down these barriers.”
At the BC Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Premier and Cabinet Luncheon, Premier David Eby let the business community know that expanding free interprovincial trade to sectors excluded from the CMRA is on the government’s agenda.
“Next up is food, alcohol, and provincial recognitions,” he said.
To truly create a ‘One Canadian’ economy that can better withstand external shocks, mutual recognition needs to be applicable to the sale of all goods and services, including food, alcohol, and labour mobility. For us in B.C., fully removing internal trade barriers could increase the provincial GDP by $7.6 billion and generate an additional $1.7 billion in government revenues – which are desperately needed given the Province’s dire fiscal situation. Moreover, removing further trade barriers would help create more jobs, make goods more affordable, and improve the quality of life for all British Columbians.
As we enter 2026, economic growth is the highest priority to B.C.’s business community. Unleashing Canada’s entrepreneurial spirit is key to making this happen. We need all levels of government to propel the mutual recognition work they accomplished in 2025 by knocking down interprovincial trade barriers for the sale of all goods and services in 2026.