Eight governments — including the U.S. and the European Union — have signed a list of policy principles aimed at removing cross-border restrictions that are damaging the airline industry.

The principles were drafted by the International Air Transport Association, and the policy statement was signed at an industry/government summit near Montreal yesterday. IATA based the principles on discussions with government representatives at another summit in Istanbul last year.

In addition to the U.S. and EU, the signatories are Chile, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. While the initial list of nations may appear small, IATA noted that it includes the two biggest players on the international stage, and collectively the eight nations account for 60% of the world’s traffic.

IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani believes other countries will quickly sign on, and he identified Australia, India, New Zealand and Vietnam as likely to follow soon. “Some of the countries asked for a bit more time” before signing, said Bisignani. “A couple of big players” are expected to join the list in the next few months, he said.

The aim is to encourage governments to unilaterally decide to not enforce certain rules which have “hamstrung the industry,” said Jeffrey Shane, a former U.S. Transportation undersecretary who is now a partner with law firm Hogan & Hartson. Shane chaired both the Istanbul and Montreal summits. The policy principles will boost the process of liberalization without the need for “long tedious negotiations,” Shane said.

A major thrust of the agreement is improving access to international capital markets. To this end, the signatories would not exercise bilateral rights that could block international services from airlines with non-national ownership restrictions. The governments also agreed to “consider the possibility of a multilateral agreement to waive ownership restrictions.”

States agreed to seek to reduce market access restrictions, and to accelerate the opening of more markets in future bilateral negotiations. The principles would remove restrictions on fare pricing.

The statement differs from the system of waivers to bilateral agreements that was proposed at the Istanbul summit. But IATA noted that the waivers can still be used as a means to implement the principles included in the latest statement.

Bisignani admitted that the policy statement is non-binding, but the principles are “an important statement of common government intention among the most active countries driving global aviation policy.” A multilateral statement of policy principles “can be a powerful diplomatic tool,” IATA said. Signatories can make it the basis for negotiating bilateral agreements. The principles can also be appended to bilateral agreements, “making them the basis on which the agreements are interpreted.”