Commonwealth free trade
[citation needed] At one extreme, proposals have been raised for the creation of a multilateral free trade area comprising all member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.
[1] The heads of government also endorsed looking into ways the organisation can strengthen dialogue, networking, and collaboration on trade and economic issues between Commonwealth members.
[2] In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, representatives of Britain, the Dominions, and the Colonies met in Ottawa, Canada, to hold the Commonwealth Conference on Economic Consultation and Co-operation.
In 1935, the Canadian Prime Minister, R. B. Bennett, a Conservative who endorsed Imperial Preference, was replaced by a Liberal, William Lyon Mackenzie King.
[citation needed] In the case of the Commonwealth, the United States was hostile to it from its inception, notwithstanding the fact that in the cases of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, there was an overwhelming preference for a trade system based on the United Kingdom rather than the U.S.[citation needed] The conclusion of World War II drastically affected the prospects for an agreement Commonwealth trade.
[citation needed] The idea of enhanced trade between Canada and Britain was explored in the mid-1950s by the Conservative government of Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker.
The plan, in response to the Canadian government's concern with over-reliance on the United States, was to adopt policies that would see up to 15 per cent of Canada's US exports diverted to the UK.
The paper, entitled "The 'Commonwealth Effect' and the Process of Internationalisation",[5] measured whether or not Commonwealth jurisdictions enjoyed a qualitative advantage in trade with one another as opposed to equivalent non-Commonwealth nations.
[1] Since declaring its intention to withdraw from the European Union, the United Kingdom has begun to quickly negotiate successor agreements with dozens of countries and blocs, including many Commonwealth members.
Completed agreements include those with CARIFORUM, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, (March 2019) Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique (October 2019), Kenya (November 2020) and Australia (December 2021).
Specifically, agricultural exporters in the Cairns Group (including members Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa) are at odds with the importing countries at the World Trade Organization.
Meanwhile, New Zealand and Singapore are already members of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, which Australia, Canada and Malaysia are attempting to join (along with major non-Commonwealth countries).
In 2005, Canadian writer and political activist Brent H. Cameron wrote 'The Case for Commonwealth Free Trade', which argued the merits of establishing a trade and investment agreement that would initially combine the most developed member economies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore) but could eventually include developing members such as India and South Africa.
The UK Independence Party has included a call for a Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement in its policy manifesto during the 2010 British general election.
[19] In addition, some members of the British Conservative Party, including MEP Daniel Hannan and MP Andrew Rosindell, have written extensively on the merits of expanding trade within the Commonwealth and the broader Anglosphere.
The following day saw British Foreign Secretary William Hague comment upon how the Commonwealth, which had been 'neglected' by previous UK governments, presented "enormous opportunities" for the nation.
[21] Supporters of Britain's membership of the European Union have criticised the proposal for a Commonwealth free trade area as unlikely in practice to come to fruition.
