The New Zealand/Australia Single Economic Market

Evolution and future directions

Authors

Keywords:

Trans-Tasman Single Market Economic Market, Regulatory cooperation, TTMRA, Business law coordination, ANCERTA, Trans-Tasman relations, Australia-New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand and Australia have a unique relationship which extends to regulatory cooperation, and, in the context of this article, cooperation underpinning the goal of a Single Economic Market (SEM). There has been a distinctly ‘trans-Tasman’ way of doing things, which includes an SEM mindset which frames opportunities to cooperate as ‘why shouldn’t we’ rather than ‘why should we’ and cooperation modalities that assume trust and confidence in each other, while recognising the need for safeguards for those times when sovereign states differ. This article traces the history of SEM and then looks to the future. It identifies and analyses four possible pathways.

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Author Biographies

Tracey Epps, University of Otago

Tracey Epps is an international lawyer and trade policy consultant and a research affiliate, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.

Peter Mumford

Peter Mumford is a researcher and policy consultant on trade and regulatory matters.

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Published

2026-08-23

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (2026): Policy Quarterly

Section

Articles

License

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