Where I live and work, we're close enough to the US, that a lot of people go down to Buffalo to shop for bargains. One of the items that's cheaper are light fixtures. People can go to a Home Depot in the US and buy the exact same fixture down there for 1/4 of the price that the same fixture sells for at a Home Depot in Canada. The problem is that the fixture does not have the approval for use in Canada. I'm sure that many customers think that I'm full of sh** when I tell them that I can't legally install that new fixture in their house.
Even though Canadians and Americans look the same, pretty much speak the same language and live on the same continent, we're still two separate countries.
There's no reasopn for a US lawmaker to impose a requirement on US manufacturers/ importers to have all items approved for sale in Canada.
As to why would an identical product sold in the US not have the approvals for Canada that the same item sold in Canada have? My guess would be that approvals cost money on a per item basis. So there's no desire to pay the money for an item's approval that your company isn't planning on exporting to Canada.
It's just like packaging requirements. Canada requires English and French on the packaging, but the US doesn't. Therefore if you look, many items sold in the US have different packaging then the same item sold in Canada.
