Agreements aimed at removing obstacles to trade and labour mobility between Australia and New Zealand should continue to exclude insurance, a Productivity Commission report says.

In the 1990s the two countries agreed to mutually recognise each other’s laws for the sale of goods and registration of occupations, and the Mutual Recognition Agreement and Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement were signed.

The schemes are reviewed every five years, and the latest report concludes laws regulating the “manner of carrying on” an occupation – including insurance – should remain exempt.

While some professions raised differences in insurance requirements as an issue, it is not deemed to be significant.

“Jurisdictional differences may be inevitable, but are probably not a significant obstacle to labour mobility,” the report says.

“The commission does not consider there has been enough evidence provided to make a sufficient case for the removal of the manner-of-carrying-on exception.”

The report says the schemes are working well, but warns benefits risk being eroded through weak oversight.

It proposes strengthening the cross-jurisdictional group of officials that oversees the schemes and improving the accountability of regulators in individual jurisdictions.