Learning from Experience: Three Case Studies in International Regulatory Cooperation, A Report Prepared for the European Commission

Abstract

Since at least 1990 regulators in the United States, Canada and the European Union have been exploring avenues for deeper collaboration in the fields of health, safety, environmental and financial regulation. These efforts have been driven by three main goals: to reduce regulatory costs of compliance for industry, to leverage scarce agency resources, and to steer regulatory standards in a globalizing marketplace in the right direction. Past efforts at transatlantic regulatory collaboration have yielded, at best, mixed results. But they have also generated a trove of valuable experience which can be used to inform the most recent initiative -- the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union -- which is currently is currently in negotiations and has made the promotion of regulatory cooperation a top priority for both sides. What can be learned from past experience to inform ongoing efforts to promote international regulatory cooperation in TTIP and beyond? In this empirical study, sponsored by the European Commission, two administrative law scholars draw on extensive primary research to craft three case studies of transnational regulatory cooperation involving the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, working with their foreign counterparts to address shared safety risks. The closely-analyzed experience of these three agencies' efforts yields a rich array of insights that should interest both scholars of administrative law and trade negotiators/regulators charged with strengthening international regulatory cooperation in these and other regulatory regimes.