Better Regulation & Cooperation

Better Regulation and Cooperation

In The 2010 Ernst & Young Business Risk Report: The Top 10 Risks for Global Business, regulation and compliance topped the list of risks facing businesses globally.

The global proliferation in regulations and the expansion of countries in which companies do business have created significant compliance costs for even the most sophisticated multinational companies. Navigating the maze of divergent, unnecessarily burdensome, and poorly designed regulations is unaffordable for many small and medium-size businesses,
keeping them from entering new markets.

Smooth movement of goods and services across borders requires transparent, effective, enforceable and mutually coherent regulatory systems that are risk and science based, adhere to international best practices, and feature close collaboration among governments and their stakeholders.

Better regulation and cooperation requires these attributes:

• A paradigm shift in the mind set of regulators to 1) see their actions in the context of other regulatory frameworks around
the world and 2) recognize that regulatory cooperation offers enhanced enforcement and elimination of unnecessary regulatory barriers to trade and investment.

• Increased regulatory transparency, taking into account and responding to stakeholder input.

• Use of regulatory best practices such as impact assessments, cost-benefit analysis, risk measurement and management, data quality, and reliance on sound science.

• Regulation focused on the core requirements necessary to protect legitimate objectives, eliminating protectionist and
discriminatory regulations that circumvent commitments to open markets.

• Championing the least burdensome approach to achieving a desired regulatory outcome.

• Enforcement of regulations that is consistent for both domestic and foreign companies.

• A reliance on voluntary consensus standards and appropriate conformity assessment.

• Making better regulations and cooperation a strategic and political imperative when negotiating trade agreements.