Recommendation #2—Facilitate
Cross-Border Mobility of Business People to Support Services Trade
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The cross-border flow of business people across North America is
essential for firms if they are to identify trade and investment
opportunities and act on them. Moreover, these flows are key to
delivering the crucial services that power North American supply
chains. Services often require face-to-face encounter to be delivered.
However, despite NAFTA granting temporary access to four categories of
business persons, barriers to their mobility remain.
- The “business visitors” category is the only one that allows
individuals temporary entry for business purposes without them being
considered “workers.” However, distinguishing between what does and
does not constitute work is subject to much interpretation. To improve
the consistency and predictability of decisions made at the border,
the business visitor category should be clarified in NAFTA 2.0.
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The list of professional occupations covered in NAFTA has not been
updated since the Agreement came into force, and thus leaves out
numerous occupations that have emerged since then, particularly in the
technology sector. This list should thus be extended to include
occupations such as software developers, data scientists, project
managers, etc.
When thinking of NAFTA, the free flow of goods between Canada, the U.S.,
and Mexico is generally what comes to mind, especially since the first
wave of liberalization was focused on eliminating tariffs. However, just
as important is the cross-border flow of business people—essential for
firms to identify trade and investment opportunities and execute on
them. Unfortunately, there are still significant barriers to the
mobility of business people across borders. Reducing these barriers
should be a priority for Canada.
Cross-border mobility of business people is essential to unlock the full
potential from trade and investment opportunities. For our closely
integrated North American economies to operate efficiently, thousands of
business people need to cross North American borders daily, whether it
is to oversee an expansion project, meet prospective clients and
suppliers, or deliver a service.
To encourage cross-border trade and investment in the region, NAFTA’s
Chapter 16 facilitates the temporary entry of four categories of
business persons: business visitors, professionals, intra-company
transferees, and traders and investors. Table 2 summarizes these
categories, along with their respective visa requirements, in both
Canada and the United States.