CANZUK federation proposal

[trewets 4782xp 0]

Could the proposition of a trade and free movement federation between Britain ,Australia New Zealand and Canada mean that our cousins down under will see price cuts to their hobby?

If this does go ahead it would possibly be the fourth largest economy behind China and Europe.

It would/could be the answer to Brexit……..maybe.

What do you all think?

[horus500 11505xp 1]

The trade deal between Oz and the UK seems to be going ahead so you never know. Personally I’d love to pay UK prices even with freight for GW stuff. We get violated here in Oz

[rastamannParticipant 2735xp 0]

That would be nice, but I don’t see it being an answer to Brexit simply because the UK lost ts privileged access to a potential market of 500 million pop (now down to about 450), geographically next door, and a CANZUK federation of about ~136 million inhabitants geographically spread all over the globe will not make up for it. The prices in AU and NZ are accounted for by shipping rates as well as other factors (I, myself, being in Portugal, have paid 90 AU$ to get Epic forumware models shipped from Australia to me, that accounting for 1/3 of the total price I paid for the models, and that was without EU customs, simply due to the weight/volume of the models).

What I’m now seeing is goods from the UK being harder to get a hold of and that has to be hurting the smaller British companies as I would imagine a lot of wargamers hailing from the continental mainland (though not from around here, naturally, as we are a population of 10 million in Portugal and wargaming is a residual hobby at best).

But this is just my view of things.

[torros 23820xp 1]

Be interesting but I could never see Australia allowing free movement of people

[hobbyhubParticipant 4169xp 1]

GW will charge what GW will charge.  If their costs drop, I don’t think it will be passed on to the consumer, especially if GW are going to subsidise increased costs to Europeans – something I remember seeing on the GW website earlier this year.

I’ve found freight prices from the UK to NZ to be quite okay, before Brexit, something I attributed to the flow of trade that already existed.  If trade volumes increase, possibly allowing for a fall of costs, GW still is not likely to pass that on.

GW’s pricing structure for OZ and NZ was set ages ago, and hasn’t really changed, no matter what the exchange rate is.  I would only expect change if the Pound was doing so well or our dollars so badly, that GW was facing a fall in revenue from this side of the world, so had to put the prices up.

The real damage was done when GW realised that some customers were buying their goods cheaper via US and UK webstores than they could at local shops, so they changed things so that not only GW stores couldn’t sell outside of region, but other websites as well.

GW gotta GW.

NZ, Oz and Canada are already part of a much larger trading block – CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership).

To me, being an ex-Brit, living the vast majority of his life in NZ, the wish for a CANZUK “federation” seems more like wishful thing for those that want to turn the clock back.  When the UK entered the EEC, the rest of the Commonwealth that used to trade heavily with GB had to find new markets and new products that met the demands of those markets.  That is something that the UK will now have to do for themselves.  It took NZ decades to fill that hole – 50% of our exports went to the UK.

The UK has applied to be a member of CPTPP, since it still has a territory it that area (the Pitcairn Islands).

Other companies’ gaming products have been more exchange rate sensitive and those companies tend not to have the restrictive trading policies built into their agreements with distributors and retailers that GWdub does.

[limburger 21842xp 1]

We need a Table Top Gamers Alliance … free minis and shipping for everyone 😉

[onlyonepinman 18075xp 0]

I am more interested to see whether I can get Battle Kiwi or Miniature Scenery stuff in the UK with customs hassle. That should offset making Infinity slightly harder to get.

[hobbyhubParticipant 4169xp 1]

@onlyonepinman – Battle Kiwi have a deal with 4Ground, so check there for the products you want.

[sundancer 43240xp 0]

@hubbyhub is right. Sadly not all what BK has to offer is there but most of it. @onlyonepinman

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