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Australia 'on the same page' as Canada as it seeks deeper EU alliance
- dismalaf 19d agoCanada doesn't even have free trade internally... It's literally easier to sell to the US or EU than to another province.
- thunderfork 19d agoIt'd depend on what you're selling, surely? I've never had any problems of this sort with basic retail product, for example
- dismalaf 19d agoWell, let's say you sell online, no matter what you're selling, you need to apply the PST/HST of the province the buyer's address is in. And then you need to file a tax return for every province you sell to. Now some provinces have a sales threshold under which you don't need to do a separate tax return, others don't. Some have an HST collected by the Federal government, others don't. And all the PST/HST rates are different. This also applies to digital goods, SaaS, etc... The US has higher thresholds in every state and no federal sales tax, and buyers pay the duties.
- emptybits 19d agoFood and especially liquor continue to have stupid barriers between provinces. But intra-provincial trade increases every year and the CMRA legislation from last year should improve that. There are no tariffs between Canadian provinces and never have been.
- dismalaf 19d ago> There are no tariffs between Canadian provinces and never have been. Did I say there were?
- emptybits 19d agoNo. You claimed Canada doesn't have free trade internally. The most common barriers to free trade are tariffs. IME tariffs and duties are what most people think of as non-free trade. Witness the current US-Canada trade war. I can order lots of things from all around the world and the main resistance to me doing that are tariffs and duties, wouldn't you agree? I'm clarifying that the trade barriers on things like liquor and food between Canadian provinces are regulations, not tariffs.
- dismalaf 19d agoTrade barriers are trade barriers. Free trade means no barriers, not no tariffs specifically. Anything that makes doing business in another province more difficult than regular operation in your own province is a barrier to trade.
- emptybits 19d agoAgree completely. The most common barriers to trade are tariffs and I'm glad we don't have those within Canada. The next most common barriers are regulatory and legislative and we've got those but the good news is (unlike the US-Canada trend lately) those barriers are diminishing (at a government pace) in a consistent trend over time. I'm not aware of steps backwards (as in US-Canada relations) where barriers between provinces increased. Am I wrong to be optimistic?
- consumer451 19d agoThe reddit post links to: https://www.reuters.com/business/australia-on-same-page-canada-it-seeks-deeper-eu-alliance-minister-says-2026-09-15/ https://www.reuters.com/business/australia-on-same-page-cana...
- vrganj 19d agoOoops, I meant to link Reuters, not Reddit. @mods, could you change?
- toomuchtodo 19d agoTags do not work, email mods, email in footer ("contact").
- s_dev 19d agoFor me the most striking thing about this was before the Brexit referendum there was rhetoric about how the UK would form a CANZUK alliance with free movement of people and goods between these countries, forming a sort of English speaking EU. Even if Canada and Australia don't join the EU as full members which is unlikely anyway (deeper ties are definitely on the table though), these sort of announcements should put to bed these complete and utter fantasies the UK has about leading some alternative world order where it's in charge and can go toe to toe with the EU. https://boris-johnson.com/2013/08/25/the-aussies-are-just-like-us-so-lets-stop-kicking-them-out/ https://boris-johnson.com/2013/08/25/the-aussies-are-just-li... https://www.ippr.org/articles/could-the-idea-of-the-anglosphere-tempt-voters-towards-brexit https://www.ippr.org/articles/could-the-idea-of-the-anglosph... Even many British would agree that Brexit was full of absolute lies, and even to this day you still see them being repeated in certain circles. These weren't even possibilities.
- smackeyacky 19d agoIt is a total fantasy that Australia would throw back in with the ghost empire that is the UK. They literally have nothing to offer us apart from a figurehead head of state.
- andai 19d ago[flagged]
- deleted 19d ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 19d agoYou have the same right to apply for asylum. "as an Australian" claims of escaping persecution and violence might be slightly harder to sustain. That's a good thing for Australia.
- smackeyacky 19d agoWest Indian migration put an end to that[0]. Unintended side effect of good old British racism. [0] https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-empire-windrush/empire-windrush-caribbean-migration/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-...
- maxdo 19d ago[flagged]
- Gregkion 19d agoAnd you want to indicate what with your smile?
- vrganj 19d agoHopefully defensive democracy finally shows its teeth and they come through with the long-overdue ban of this fascist party.
- andai 19d agoDemocracy is when the government does what I want!
- soco 19d agoI'd say the majority doesn't want AfD, otherwise they would have voted for them. So let's not claim what is not due.
- firmretention 19d agoGood point. We should abolish any party that can't win an election.
- vrganj 19d agoTheir electoral performance is irrelevant to their legality under Art 9 GG.
- vrganj 19d agoI'd recommend reading up on German constitutional theory and consider the historical precedent that might've lead them to realize the importance of having their democracy be defensive - something they're failing to live up to right now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_democracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_democracy
- svara 19d agoAmazing, let's please do Japan and Taiwan next.
- GoToRO 19d agoJapan ambassador in Romania said just that in an interview.
- akie 19d agoRussia and the US seek to expand by invasion, at the same time there are NINE countries with a stated ambition to join the European Union, and now there seem to be even more countries who want to "more closely align" with the EU (whatever that means). Whenever countries consider their needs and desires, and what they want their country to be, they look at the countries of Europe - not at Russia, not at the US, and not at China.
- dachworker 19d agoJapan and Taiwan are culturally very foreign unlike Australia and Canada. If we add them we might as well add the whole globe.
- bsoqk 19d ago[flagged]
- BIGFOOT_EXISTS 19d agoLOL Canada should seek deeper internal alliances first. Since 2015, every year the QoL gets worse.
- kakacik 19d agoWhy not both? Perfection is the enemy of good. More good reliable friends is always better, and fuck the unreliable backstabbing ones as much as possible and reasonable, future will sort out details. World is not static, alliances change and we may revert in future if US population decides it wants to be ruled over by more reasonable, respectable and kind people.
- Gregkion 19d agoThere is a group of people in canada which takes care of QoL and another group of people taking care of external relationships and trade. And normally this helps a country?
- BIGFOOT_EXISTS 18d agoWe have a trade war currently. Direct intersection of those 2 concerns. Some provinces are more open to trade with US while others become manic at the mention of it. Having 2 groups working on related problems independently does not solve anything.
- cwillu 19d agoIs the declining QoL in the room right now?
- firmretention 19d agoNo, it's in the increasingly growing tent cities in my town, and among the junkies that have taken over downtown Ottawa. Glad to hear you're doing well, though.
- cwillu 19d agoSounds like a municipal or (perhaps) a provincial issue.
- dmix 19d agoCanada has long had a very good free trade deal with the EU, which eliminated 98% of tariffs in 2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Economic_and_Trade_Agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Economic_and_Tra...
- dismalaf 19d agoOf course the 2% of items not included are pretty substantial; agricultural products with strict quotas. There's also strict country of origin rules so if too many materials are sourced outside Canada, even if its made in Canada it can be subject to tariffs. Not to mention needing to adhere to EU standards.
- hylaride 19d agoAgriculture is always the hardest due to a variety of factors, including standards, but also farming is among the most subsidized and/or protected businesses in the developed world. Creating a fair and level trading system around it is difficult. A good example is the dairy protectionism in Canada that Trump so bitterly complains about. The issue is Canada manages its system with production quotas, but the US directly and indirectly subsidizes production. Who's being more (un)fair? How do you create a trading relationship around that?
- dmix 19d agoOne difference is in the US they subsidize corn, which makes it cheaper domestically and the support farmers get makes them more competitive on global markets. Canada does supply control on dairy, which drives up prices domestically and prevents competition. There's a reason one is called a cartel.
- win311fwg 19d ago> Creating a fair and level trading system around it is difficult. There are no real limitations outside of dairy, poultry, and eggs; same as on the US front. If it is so difficult why is there nothing in place, aside from those three categories? Are these the only food categories that matter to people? What about the food that the animals in those categories eat? > but the US directly and indirectly subsidizes production. Since the Obama era, the US and Canada have had essentially the same subsidy system, save dairy, poultry, and eggs, which, as you pointed out, get their own special rules. But as you pointed out they are still subsidized indirectly via things like corn subsidies, which is where Canada and the US are now effectively on the same page (that wasn't always the case, of course, but the reforms happened a long time ago now and what went on 30 years ago doesn't mean much anymore). When cooler heads prevailed the US played fair in aligning their system to Canada's, so why isn't the same being willing to be offered in kind? Changing the diary, poultry, and egg system doesn't mean giving up subsidies, if the people want to continue to offer subsidies. The US model already offers a way to provide that. Canada already accepts that for other food products, so there is nothing unprecedented there. Of course, it's not really about the farmers/production, is it? It is about protecting Saputo, Lactalis, and Agropur's triopoly.
- ovi256 19d agoIt has always surprised me that the 'free world', NATO countries, developed countries (including Japan, Taiwan, Australia), however one wants to call them, do not have at least free trade, if not free movement of people and capital, between them. A travesty, IMO. And a great loss making us all poorer. Not a patchwork of point-to-point free trade agreements, but several hub agreements that countries join, and, in time, the hubs agree to free trade between them too.
- nemomarx 19d agoThe schengen zone is exactly this hub agreement isn't it?
- Aldipower 19d agoIs Schen-zen a city in China? Edit: The OP wrote 'schenzen' instead of 'schengen' before. That was the joke. Invisible now.
- gus_massa 19d agoIIRC schengen zone is about people, not about goods. There are like 10 almost overlaping zones. This is a map recently posted by amenghra: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1tda6wl/european_integration_updated_2026_a_eular_diagram/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1tda6wl/european_in...
- Steve16384 19d ago
- valeg 19d agoPRC's trade surplus is pushing for a wide customs union. This is a part of this trend.
- petermcneeley 19d ago[flagged]
- world2vec 19d agoAn "expanded" Schengen Area that crosses the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and brings Canada, Australia (and Japan, maybe?) into the fold would be an incredible thing. I'm all for it.
- bojan 19d agoIt would be nice, but it's too high a bar to set, as the visa policies differ significantly between the three. There is a real danger the Schengen agreement itself will collapse in the upcoming years - Germany is already ignoring both the Schengen agreement and its own courts by keeping border controls.
- landosaari 19d agoStep 0: be included in Eurovision Australia 2015 √ Canada 2027 √
- deleted 19d ago[deleted]
- gumby 19d agoFrom the Reuters article: > Australia and the European Union signed a free trade agreement in March after eight years of negotiations, removing tariffs on almost all goods and potentially easing EU access to Australian critical minerals. Reuters left out the most interesting part which is to allow service providers to work on either side and four year visas (which include work) in both directions.
- penguin_booze 19d agoThis is a positive sign: free-minded, aligned, progressive nations clustering together. Suggested next steps are to form a single market, military, issue common trade currency, move off US dollar, stop trading with the US, thereby restoring sovereignty and enacting your own laws etc. All, of course, is a ramp to eventually shunning the US: the global bully. Yes, we can!
- drstewart 18d ago>Suggested next steps are to form a single market >thereby restoring sovereignty So Canada will be able to be in the EU single market but make its own trade rules and agreements then? Let me fix your chant for you: No, it can't! EU can't even shun Russia, let alone the US.