NEWS RELEASES
CANADA'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEMPROTECTED UNDER THE NAFTA
April 2, 1996 No. 55
CANADA'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
PROTECTED UNDER THE NAFTA
The Honourable Art Eggleton, Minister for International Trade, and the Honourable
David Dingwall, Minister of Health, announced today that Canada, the United States
and Mexico signed a letter confirming that existing provincial measures, including
health care services, are fully protected under the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA).
All health care services are protected to the extent that they are social services
established or maintained for a public purpose. In recent weeks, concerns have
been expressed by certain provinces that Canadian public health care services that
were not listed under Annex II of the NAFTA might be vulnerable to U.S.
encroachment. In the letter, the three parties agreed that all existing health
care services are protected.
"We have worked with our U.S. and Mexican colleagues to allay the fears expressed
about health care services. I am very pleased that we were able to reach an
agreement that confirms the protection of the health sector," said Mr. Eggleton.
"I am pleased with this agreement," said Mr. Dingwall. "As I have been telling
Canadians, they can rest assured that medicare is safe. This further confirms
that Canada's publicly financed, universal health care system is not in any way
jeopardized by the NAFTA."
This agreement reaffirms the NAFTA's full protection of social services in Canada,
including health.
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For further information, media representatives may contact:
Media Relations Office
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
(613) 995-1874
Monette Haché
Media Relations Office
Health Canada
(613) 957-1803
Backgrounder
NAFTA TRILATERAL AGREEMENT ON LISTING STATE
AND PROVINCIAL RESERVATIONS
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Parties may list non-conforming measures in various ways. In Annex II, all three Parties to the NAFTA
have set out identical reservations for certain sectors, notably for social
services like health to the extent that they are social services established or
maintained for a public purpose. Parties do not need to list specific measures
under Annex II. Moreover, they may introduce new NAFTA inconsistent measures in
those sectors. In particular, this protects all key elements of the Canadian
health care system.
Any remaining non-conforming measures not captured by the broad carveouts in Annex
II are to be listed in Annex I. These carveouts are exceptions to basic NAFTA
rules which require that service suppliers and investors from other NAFTA Parties
be permitted to operate under the same conditions as Canadians. Measures were to
be specifically listed and, if not, could not be maintained. The federal
governments of the three Parties had already listed their measures, but states and
provinces were given until March 31, 1996, to compile their lists.
In preparation for the March 31 deadline, the federal government worked closely
with the provinces to ensure effective coverage under Annex I. Some provinces
were concerned to the extent that a measure might not be covered by the extensive
carveout in Annex II. The three NAFTA Parties have recently agreed, however, to
each table only a short general reservation under Annex I covering all state and
provincial measures. While they will continue to exchange lists of detailed
measures as previously, this will be for transparency purposes only. This
approach ensures that all existing provincial measures are captured, regardless of
whether or not they are listed.
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