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Canadian Food Inspection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture
Regulatory Partnership Statement

The regulatory partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) establishes a new forum for enhanced regulatory cooperation as highlighted under the Canada – U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Council's (RCC) Joint Forward Plan released in August 2014. In meeting the key elements of the RCC Joint Forward Plan, CFIA and USDA have:

The scope of work under this partnership will be guided by the RCC Joint Forward Plan areas of commitments and will be determined through discussions between the CFIA, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and their stakeholders to improve regulatory alignment. The regulatory partnership will focus on areas where regulated parties, consumers, and/or regulators can realize benefits without sacrificing outcomes related to plant health, animal health and food safety (meat and poultry). This effort is not intended to replace established consultation processes in relation to rule making or regulatory decision making.

Governance Structure

USDA and CFIA have established a senior level committee, co-chaired by the Vice-President, Policy and Programs of the CFIA and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the USDA, or their designees, to review progress on annual work plans and cooperative activities, and to discuss medium and longer-term regulatory alignment opportunities in the areas of animal health, plant health and food safety (meat and poultry). To support this work:

Work Plans

USDA and CFIA will identify work plan priorities informed by a number of factors focusing on the costs and benefits directed at the public/consumers, industry, and the regulators. Work plans may include, but are not limited to:

Work plans will be reviewed annually and will be posted on the Canada and U.S. RCC websites.

Stakeholder Engagement

USDA and CFIA will invite a wide range of stakeholders, including regulated parties, consumers, and industry groups, to an annual RCC Co-Chair meeting/stakeholder event to provide bi-national information to the senior level committee regarding industry and consumer trends and the potential implications to help inform cooperative activities going forward.

Stakeholders will be asked to provide information pertaining to:

CFIA and USDA technical working groups will also regularly engage with stakeholders through joint conference calls or webinars to identify new areas of opportunity and to inform annual work planning, as well as to outline progress over the previous work term. Technical working groups will plan separate stakeholder outreach sessions for animal health, plant health, and food safety (meat and poultry) stakeholders.

The agencies will utilize, but are not limited to, the following stakeholder events: public meetings and hearings, stakeholder dialogues with industry and consumer groups, and the annual RCC stakeholder/Co-Chair meeting.

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