From One Single Market to Another: European Integration, Australasian Ambivalence and Construction of the Trans-Tasman Single Economic Market

Over 30 years Australian and New Zealand policy makers constructed a Trans-Tasman Single Economic Market that, like the Single European Market, removed administrative barriers to the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Europeans have taken no notice of this other case of ‘deep’ economic integration. Yet European integration has had both direct and indirect effects on trans-Tasman developments. Australasian policymakers looked to Europe for ‘lessons’, but adapted them to suit local conditions.