Watch Now: Wales & CANZUK – A Bright Future?

The one hour webinar featured guest panelists Craig Williams (Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, UK), Ed Fast (Member of Parliament for Abbotsford, Canada) and James Skinner (Founder and Executive Director of CANZUK International).

The event discussed a variety of topics exploring the dynamics of a CANZUK alliance and how collaboration between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom would benefit regional areas such as Wales.

“Free movement, trade and foreign policy cooperation would be tremendously opportunistic for these four countries and even for regional entities like Wales itself,” said Skinner. “Having grown up there, it is a phenomenal place…and I think Wales itself would thrive and prosper within a CANZUK arrangement; not only having opportunities like they currently do throughout the UK, but to also have opportunities in countries which are so like-minded.”

When event host, Edward Sumner, asked former International Trade Minister, Ed Fast, about the timing of the CANZUK initiative, Fast responded:

“The opportunity we have now, post-COVID, is that the global economy has been devastated by this pandemic. Coming out of this, we face all kinds of economic challenges…how do we resurrect a vigorous, rules-based trade environment? It’s the four most like-minded countries in the world, the countries of CANZUK, to come together and promote these values on the world stage. If you were looking for low-hanging fruit to recharge the global economy, this would be it.”

Sumner also enquired about what benefits the UK would obtain from being a part of a CANZUK alliance, to which Williams responded:

“We don’t want to get lost in just seeing this as trade numbers. We are intrinsically linked; not just law, not just Head of State, not just language, but the way we think…We are growing and tackling the fiscal nightmare we have after COVID and we can do that together as common nations far easier than we can do it apart.”

The full webinar can also be viewed via CANZUK International’s YouTube channel, along with past-webinars and the latest news from the CANZUK campaign.

CANZUK International will continue to speak at online and in-person events and advocate the benefits of reciprocal migration, trade and foreign policy cooperation between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.