Canada’s provincial and territorial chambers of commerce are urging Canada’s premiers to fast-track action on internal trade — just as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs against Canada.
The Chambers of the Federation released a joint policy framework on Tuesday, ahead of the premiers’ annual meeting, this year held in Charlottetown. The framework identifies five priorities for collective action to strengthen the country’s economic resilience and competitiveness, and came just a day after Trump signed executive orders to add fresh tariffs against targeted Canadian goods.
While the chamber CEOs applauded recent progress in the form of commitments to dismantle trade barriers and increase cooperation and labour mobility, they noted that the provinces and territories now must act on those agreements.
“Canada’s premiers have moved the agenda further in the last year than in the last decade,” said Daniel Tisch, president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and founding chair of the Chambers of the Federation, in a release. “Now comes the hard part: implementation. That means removing internal trade barriers, accelerating nation-building infrastructure, and building more resilient, sovereign supply chains that strengthen Canada’s competitiveness.”
The framework identifies five priorities for collective action over the next 12–24 months that would strengthen the country’s economic resilience and competitiveness. They include internal trade and building “one Canadian economy”; investing in energy and trade infrastructure; coordination with the federal government to build a “Team Canada” approach to compete globally and develop positions for the joint Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) review; a focus on building and connecting energy and trade infrastructure domestically and by working with U.S. states; accelerating approvals for nation-building projects; and strengthening domestic procurement and industrial capacity.
Since returning to office in November 2024, U.S. President Donald Trump has instituted a range of tariffs over Canada and other trade partners, some of which have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. In response, the federal government and provinces have turned their attention to improving domestic trade and labour mobility. In the past 13 months alone, the federal government passed the Labour Mobility in Canada Act, introduced as part of the One Canadian Economy Act; the provinces all signed the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement on the Sale of Goods and the Free Trade; and financial services were incorporated into the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, aimed at reducing duplicative requirements for sector firms.
Last week, Ontario announced it would join the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) passport system, a key step toward greater harmonization in securities regulation. And on Tuesday, the premiers announced an agreement between nine provinces (Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador) to remove barriers to direct-to-consumer alcohol sales. The deal builds on agreements Ontario signed with both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick last year that covered direct-to-consumer alcohol sales and committed to allow the free flow of goods and workers.
Despite the high-level actions, progress has been less apparent to businesses on the ground, according to a Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) report released last week.
While its 2026 State of Internal Trade report card gave the provinces generally high marks for recent work they’ve done to remove internal trade barriers, CFIB explained that the high scores reflected commitments rather than on-the-ground progress. The report card cited the Canada Mutual Recognition Agreement, signed by all provinces in November 2025, as the main factor behind the high scores. That agreement, which was recently expanded to include services, will allow goods sold in one province to be sold in another without additional applications or approvals.
According to the CFIB report, however, nearly seven in 10 small businesses (69%) surveyed said they hadn’t noticed meaningful changes in doing business across Canada over the past 12 months, and 16% said it had become more difficult. They flagged challenges related to regulatory differences, certification requirements and delays, and more than half (57%) of business owners lacked awareness of recent reforms.
A report released in January by the International Monetary Fund projected that eliminating internal trade barriers could boost Canada’s GDP by nearly 7% in the long run, or $210 billion in 2025 dollars.
This story has been edited.