CANZUK
CANZUK is an acronym for a proposed alliance comprising Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of an international organisation or confederation similar in scope to the former European Economic Community.
[4][5] Other supporters include think tanks such as the Adam Smith Institute,[6] the Henry Jackson Society,[7] Bruges Group[8] and politicians from the four countries.
[13][14] Andrew Roberts suggested that such a bloc could slot into the international order as a third pillar of the West (alongside the United States and the European Union).
[15] In the version favoured by Lilico, by the advocacy group CANZUK international and by the Conservative Party of Canada, the proposal would involve the creation of a free-movement zone, a multilateral free trade agreement and a security partnership.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are also Commonwealth realms which share Charles III as their constitutional monarch and their head of state.
All four nations have diverse, multicultural populations, free and open presses, and are closely aligned on key social issues.
Greatly liberalising free movement of goods and people, the new agreement will reduce technological and digital barriers between the two nations.
In addition to the six Australian States, Australia also comprises ten territories, whose existence and governmental structure (if any) depend on federal legislation.
[94] Other organisations are largely voluntary groupings of those who advocate the more specific idea of transnational union, such as "CANZUK Uniting".
The eventual winner of the leadership election, Andrew Scheer, stated his support for a CANZUK free trade deal in March 2017.
Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have a similar basis of law, they have a common democratic system, they have the same types of legislation and regulations around investment and trade.
After his victory in the August 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, Erin O'Toole, made CANZUK a priority in his platform.
[102][103] In August 2017, Liberal Senator for Victoria, James Paterson, published an opinion-piece in the Australian Financial Review declaring support for CANZUK free trade and free movement, stating "With Australia, New Zealand and Canada all lining up to sign post-Brexit trade agreements with the United Kingdom, we have an opportunity to push for a wide-ranging agreement between all four Commonwealth nations...It's an idea whose time has come.
[108] On 11 July 2012, Andrew Rosindell MP for Romford put forward a private members' bill to the UK Parliament which would involve allowing "subjects of Her Majesty's realms to enter the United Kingdom through a dedicated channel at international terminals", "display prominently a portrait of Her Majesty as Head of State" and the Union flag, and other provisions,[109] which would include citizens of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the stated aim of introducing reciprocal border agreements between the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms in the future.
[114] Scottish Conservative MP Bill Grant also expressed his support for increased ties between the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand on his webpage in 2018 and stated that British Ministers are aware of CANZUK and "are very enthusiastic about our future relationships and trade with each of the countries involved".
Nick Cohen wrote in April 2016 that "It's a Eurosceptic fantasy that the 'Anglosphere' wants Brexit", and emphasises the gradual separation that has occurred between each of the states in both legal and political culture since the end of the British Empire.
[118] Former Australian Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd reiterated this sentiment, stating that "much as any Australian, Canadian and New Zealand governments of whichever persuasion would do whatever they could to frame new free-trade agreements with the UK, the bottom line is that 65 million of us do not come within a bull's roar of Britain's adjacent market of 450 million Europeans", describing the idea as "bollocks".
[120] Chris Randle wrote in the American, left-wing Jacobin that "Anglo-conservatives sometimes fantasize about reuniting the dominions under “CANZUK,” a trade bloc where workers could be exploited freely.
In Europe's most regionally unequal economy, the United Kingdom, desiccated from years of austerity, this is what passes for political ambition: necromancers sewing each other's zombies together.
"[121] An editorial in Canada's Globe and Mail, which described CANZUK as "a silly name", pointed out that those Commonwealth countries with which advocates of Brexit were most enamoured were "ex-Dominions where white people predominate" and that even if it were broadened to include populous countries, the group had "nowhere near the latent appetite for trade with Britain that would make the scheme credible".
[122] In an article published in The New York Times in April 2018, historian Alex von Tunzelmann stated that "no doubt, the advocates of reviving Britain's links with Canada, Australia and New Zealand can cite myriad reasons that have nothing to do with racism to explain why some other nations are just different.
[124] International affairs professor Srdjan Vucetic expands on this idea further, describing CANZUK as "the latest variant of a long line of projects seeking to consolidate the British settler empire, projects that were until deep into the second half of the twentieth century justified in explicitly racist terms" and questioned the viability of a CANZUK defence pact without the inclusion of the United States, as in the Five Eyes and ABCANZ alliances.
Australian trade minister Simon Birmingham had said he "can't imagine full and unfettered free movement" would be discussed during post-Brexit negotiations for a free-trade agreement.
[127] Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison had earlier said in September 2019 that "the New Zealand arrangement is quite unique and it's not one we would probably ever contemplate extending".
[128] Although it has maintained a level of support, the concept of CANZUK is generally regarded as highly polarised between the political left and right.
[136] All of the respective provinces, states and territories of Australia, Canada and New Zealand registered majority support for the proposals.
