* The second in a three-part series
Post-WWII planners accepted free trade as a hallmark of Western prosperity, in part as insurance against war due to the economic interdependence it fosters. However, this institution has not only been challenged, but in the eyes of some, proven to be the product of naive liberal utopianism, and is now facing a period of decline. The United States and China, today’s superpowers, have utilized free trade and trade liberalization to exert influence on smaller nations and grow their economies, even whilst discursively attacking it for political reasons, such as American protectionism or suspicion of each other’s long-term intentions. In this scuffle, smaller nations allied to the United States like Canada are forced to salvage their hitherto unfettered access to the US market.
Intergovernmental organizations like NATO and the WTO, which disincentivize states from resolving disputes around sovereignty or trade through coercive means, but to instead manage them through negotiation and dialogue, remain important to Canada’s security and welfare. And current tensions with the United States suggest closer ties with other allies and partners are needed as insurance, should difficulties with the United States persist after President Donald Trump leaves office.
In that spirit, CANZUK is the first step towards this form of non-military security preparation. Referring to a proposed alliance treaty between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, CANZUK predicates the relationship between the four on pooling the resources of four developed Western economies with similar legal and political systems and commitments to free trade. The combination of these economies into a new bloc could total well over $6 trillionworth of GDP, making CANZUK a mighty negotiating tool with the United States, China and others. Each member provides vital sectors to the global and each other’s economies, and CANZUK would enhance this activity. This includes British and New Zealand financial and labour services, Australian coal, Canadian oil, and uranium from both the latter two natural resource-rich countries.
These states already have some bilateral agreements, which attempt to resolve unique issues pertaining to their relationship, such as Canada and the UK’s dispute over access to agricultural markets, (especially Canadian beef). This dispute has seen a minor resurgence in Canada due to complaints over British restrictions on Canadian beef exports, which risk damaging some UK agricultural markets. A similar issue was resolved in July 2025 with Australia after Canada was shown to alleviate Australian concerns over tainted beef, reopening Canadian farmers to a vital export market. July 2025 also restored similar access for New Zealand to Canadian dairy markets after a complaint through the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was brought forward. Suffice it to say, the main disputes which held CANZUK countries back from further free trade with Canada have mostly been resolved. The geopolitical benefits of CANZUK free trade would help to mitigate concerns over competition for industries, which would gain from access to these large markets.
One of the greatest security risks to all CANZUK countries is the rise of China as a superpower and the pressure it exerts. Security, in discussions around China, encompasses traditional military security, which NATO is also heavily invested in. For example, Chinese maritime violations, which pose risks to NATO partners like South Korea and Japan, are traditional risks against which CANZUK countries would be invested against in the Indo-Pacific. But non-military security, specifically economic, is also salient, and China poses economic threats to all four proposed CANZUK states. In the case of Australia, it has been manifested in trade sanctions on Australian coal after Australian demands for inquiries into the origin of COVID-19. China has also interfered in Australian legislative politics. Canada has reaped large Chinese tariffs on agricultural products like rapeseed oil, canola oil and meat. This has been widely seen as a retaliatory measure borne of Beijing’s anger at Canada and the United States’ targeting officials and contracts of Huawei Technologies in 2018, a Chinese company accused of utilizing spyware in their devices. In January 2026, Canada and China reported they had reached preliminary agreements to lower tariffs on certain Canadian agricultural exports to China like canola oil, but the threat of Chinese economic coercion is ever-present.
One field that is paramount to Western cooperation is energy security. Two CANZUK countries, namely Australia and Canada, are among some of the richest countries in the world in terms of their natural resource endowments. Australia holds the third largest proven reserves of coal in the world and the largest reserve of uranium. Canada holds the fourth largest proven reserves of oil in the world in the Albertan oil sands and the third-largest reserves of uranium. With China being such a huge consumer of Australian coal, looking to gain access to Canadian oil supplies, and requiring large stockpiles of uranium for its growing nuclear energy program, CANZUK could allow all four countries with security concerns about China to coordinate restrictions on Chinese access to those resources.
The mutual benefit of CANZUK for its members’ economic performance is compelling. The UK has some of the highest energy and oil bills in the developed world. A CANZUK treaty could allow the acceleration and transport of vital energy resources to lower the UK’s energy costs. A CANZUK treaty could also incentivize Canada to work faster to resolve its domestic political battles in the construction of oil pipelines to expedite interprovincial and international trade (whilst still being considerate of the delicate considerations for its indigenous peoples affected by the pipelines). The UK, alongside New Zealand, are economies with a heavy reliance on the service sector and have both experienced a sharp decline in industry since the 1980s. A CANZUK treaty, which would allow free trade in energy resources like uranium, could revitalize the nuclear energy sector in the UK, whilst benefitting Canada and Australia as export countries, as there would be an incentive to once again invest in infrastructure conducive to nuclear energy. This form of energy, such as Ontario’s small-modular reactors, is increasingly becoming a vital form of modernization in the developed world in almost every country except Germany. Under CANZUK, countries like the UK will require means like cheaper access to Australian and Canadian resources to keep up with this trend.
Whilst free trade has become devalued in the eyes of some due to the social and economic disparities it can create, the CANZUK countries maintain a political, economic and moral incentive to preserve it as a vital instrument in growth, prosperity and peace. This can be started through its fullest implementation amongst each other. This would allow the pooling of economies together which could rival the might of Japan or the European Union in financial resources and leverage in international trade. The greatest benefit to Canada would be the potential for rapid industrial development of its oil sector and the negotiating powers it could provide in consideration towards the United States and China. Economically, CANZUK far outweighs the valid concerns over agricultural markets for Canada and could serve as the ultimate example of the middle-power “plurilateralism” that PM Carney preached so recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Photo: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joins Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Royal Oak Pub, Ottawa, Canada. (2025) By Number 10, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NATO Association of Canada.
