Do it. Make it less embarrassing for UK to come back too somehow.

It is an interesting position we are in here, I suspect we will do the usual thing and walk the middle road. Australia, is part of the Commonwealth, huge trade partner with Asia and allies with the US. Why not throw Canada into the mix some more.

This setup is why I call this place an equal opportunist whore. If we can do business with you, we will. I also call it the worlds largest Mining town, but that just acknowledging the reality of the place a little.

As much as many are going against the US, I don't think there is much constitution at the top here to make such a bold move. We will just be pottering around down here hoping all the bad stuff passes us by as nobody notices us.

Just to be clear on this - Australia is primarily interested in methods of reducing trade barriers, not any sort of political union.

Australia is economically served well by free trade: most of its production is low cost, high quality primary production of mining outputs and agricultural goods (grains, wool and meat) where if price and quality are the primary selection criteria it wins.

The downside of this is that Australia hasn't really got any significant manufacturing or advanced technology industry.

But it has made Australia one of the best performing economies of the past 25 years.