The New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) is an accord between the Governments of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan that creates Canada's largest, barrier-free, interprovincial market.
The need for such an agreement is clear. Over time, all jurisdictions across the world have adopted rules that unfortunately serve to hinder the free movement of goods, services, and people.
Under the NWPTA, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan are the first jurisdictions to commit to full mutual recognition or reconciliation of rules that hinder the free movement of goods, services, investment, and people within Canada. The NWPTA builds on the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between British Columbia and Alberta and has the clarity Saskatchewan was seeking on public ownership of Crowns and the ability of municipalities to support economic development.
The NWPTA comes into effect July 1, 2010 and will be fully implemented on July 1, 2013.
British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan have also committed to:
- Avoid measures that operate to restrict or impair trade between or through their territories, or investment between them.
- Treat businesses, investors and workers of the two provinces at least as favourably as they treat their own or those of another jurisdiction.
- Mutually recognize or otherwise reconcile unnecessary differences in their standards and regulations.
- Be fully transparent, and notify each other of any proposed measure that is covered by the Agreement. The objective is to ensure that new measures do not create new impediments.
- Ensure that each province lives up to its commitments by having an enforceable dispute resolution mechanism that is accessible by governments, businesses, workers and investors.
