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Canada, Australia and New Zealand are more like Britain than any EU member

At US$6.5 trillion in combined GDP, the CANZUK countries would constitute the fourth-largest group in the world, behind the U.S., EU and China. At nearly two-thirds the combined GDP of China, no one could deny that a CANZUK economic grouping would be economically significant. Total global trade of these four countries would be worth more than US$3.5 trillion, versus around US$4.8 trillion for the U.S., US$4.2 trillion for China, or US$1.7 trillion for Japan. These are big numbers by global standards.

What might be the elements to a new partnership? The first step might be a new trade deal, perhaps encompassing all four countries together. Then we could add free movement of people — i.e., the automatic right to move to work. A special defence partnership might follow, perhaps including the U.K. providing a nuclear shield to Australia (more credible today than U.S. guarantees) and naval support to Canada to enforce its claims on the increasingly important Northwest Passage. We could develop mutual recognition of our economic, environmental and health and safety regulations, along with our labour standards. Perhaps we might agree to committees or other institutions to develop future regulation together.

It would be very important that Canada, Australia and New Zealand did not see this as some reheated latter-day British Empire. Hence, any CANZUK governance institutions (akin to the European Commission, the IMF or the Bank for International Settlements) should be located in a member country other than the U.K. In any event, the modern U.K. population of around 65 million is only a little greater than that of Canada and Australia combined. The risk of dominance through asymmetry of economic or population size would be small. This would be a partnership of equals.