Many Commonwealth nations play similar sports

Many Commonwealth nations play similar sports that are considered quintessentially "British" in character, rooted in and developed under British rule or hegemony, including cricket, rugby, and netball.^[101] Toshiba AB7005HX-SB3 CPU Fan This has led to the development of friendly national rivalries between the main sporting nations that have often defined their relations with each another. Indeed, said rivalries preserved close ties by providing a constant in international relationships, even as the Empire transformed into the Commonwealth.^[102] Toshiba Satellite A500-18T CPU Fan Externally, playing these sports is seen to be a sign of sharing a certain Commonwealth culture; the adoption ofcricket at schools in Rwanda is seen as symbolic of the country's move towards Commonwealth membership.^[103][104] Besides the Commonwealth Games, other sporting competitions are organised on a Commonwealth basis, HP Pavilion dv5-2135dx CPU Fan through championship tournaments such as the Commonwealth Judo Championships, Commonwealth Rowing Championships, Commonwealth Sailing Championships, Commonwealth Shooting Championships and Commonwealth Pool Lifesaving Championships. The Commonwealth Boxing Council has long maintained Commonwealth titles for the best boxers in the Commonwealth. ASUS EEE PC 1201NL CPU Fan The shared history of British presence has produced a substantial body of writing in many languages, known as Commonwealth literature.^[105][106] The Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, with nine chapters worldwide and an international conference is held every three years. SONY Vaio VGN-NW240D/T CPU Fan In 1987, the Commonwealth Foundation established the annual Commonwealth Writers' Prize "to encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin". Prizes are awarded for the best book and best first book in the Commonwealth, Compaq Presario CQ60-418DX CPU Fan as well as regional prizes for the best book and best first book from each of four regions. Although not officially affiliated with the Commonwealth, the prestigious Man Booker Prize is awarded annually to an author from a Commonwealth country or the three former members, Ireland, Zimbabwe, andthe Gambia. This honour is one of the highest in literature. SONY Vaio VGN-NW240D CPU Fan Due to their shared constitutional histories, most countries in the Commonwealth have similar legal and political systems. The Commonwealth requires its members to be functioning democracies that respect human rights and the rule of law. Half of Commonwealth countries have the Westminster system of parliamentarydemocracy. SONY VGN-BX197XP CPU Fan The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association facilitates cooperation between legislatures across the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum promotes good governance amongst local government officials. Most Commonwealth members use common law, modelled on English law. Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4056 CPU Fan The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the supreme court of 14 Commonwealth members. The Commonwealth has adopted a number of symbols that represent the association of its members. The English language is recognised as a symbol of the members' heritage; as well as being considered a symbol of the Commonwealth, Toshiba AB7805HX-GB3 CPU Fan recognition of it as "the means of Commonwealth communication" is a prerequisite for Commonwealth membership. The flag of the Commonwealth consists of the symbol of the Commonwealth Secretariat, a gold globe surrounded by emanating "rays", on a dark blue field; it was designed for the second CHOGM in 1973, and officially adopted on 26 March 1976. Toshiba Satellite L500-208 CPU Fan 1976 also saw the organisation agree to a common date on which to commemorateCommonwealth Day, the second Monday in March, having developed separately on different dates from Empire Day celebrations. A poll in seven member countries on the occasion of 60th anniversary of the founding of the Commonwealth in 2009 commissioned by the HP 535441-001 CPU Fan Royal Commonwealth Societyfound that most people in all countries were largely ignorant of the Commonwealth's functions and indifferent towards its future. In Canada one third of respondents said they would not care if Canada left the Commonwealth, half could not describe what it does, and Canadians were four times more likely to support closer ties to the United States. Toshiba Satellite P100-444 CPU Fan Support was also weak in other wealthier Commonwealth realms but much stronger in poorer Commonwealth republics. Nearly one fifth of Australian respondents said they would be "delighted" or "pleased" if their country left the Commonwealth.Commonwealth Free Trade is a concept built around the gradual introduction of a free trade treaty that would include member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. HP Pavilion dv7-3114eo CPU Fan The idea of promoting inter-Commonwealth trade has emerged in recent years as a response to the current evolution of the global economy. Proponents in Commonwealth jurisdictions promote the idea as a means of diversifying and expanding their own national economies. The concept has become popularized in Britain among those who are self-styled ‘Eurosceptics’, HP Mini 110-1125SA CPU Fan and wish for the UK to leave the formal political structures of the European Union, to be replaced with a Free Trade Treaty with the EU. Throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Britain exercised an informal trade system with her colonies and self-governing dominions. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan During the early 20th century, several political figures in Britain, led by Joseph Chamberlain, argued for a policy of Imperial Preference – both to promote unity within the British Empire, and to assure Britain’s position as a world power. The policy was controversial as it pitted proponents of Imperial trade with those who sought a general policy of trade liberalization with all nations. Compaq Presario CQ60-210eo CPU Fan The schism helped contribute to the defeat of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour and his Conservative-Unionist government in 1906, and had serious ramifications for Conservative prospects in the 1923 and 1929 general elections. One notable victory had been the establishment of the Empire Marketing Board in 1926, which encouraged Britons to ‘Buy Empire’. HP Pavilion dv7-2250sf CPU Fan In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, representatives of Britain, the Dominions, and the Colonies met in Ottawa, Canada to hold the Commonwealth Conference on Economic Consultation and Co-operation.^[1] There had been an initial agreement on Imperial Preference, but a comprehensive agreement failed to materialize. HP 434678-001 CPU Fan Many of the Dominion leaders attributed this to the attitude of the British Dominions Secretary J. H. Thomas during the negotiations. In 1935, the Canadian Prime Minister, R. B. Bennett, a Conservative who endorsed Imperial Preference, was replaced by a Liberal, W. L. M. King. King responded to pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and abandoned Imperial Preference. HP G60-230us CPU Fan The United States was determined to maintain its tariff protections and access to markets, but was vociferously opposed to any such preferences enjoyed by other countries.[citation needed] In the case of the Commonwealth, the U.S. was hostile to it from its inception, notwithstanding the fact that in the cases of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, HP Pavilion dv6365us CPU Fan there was an overwhelming preference for a trade system based on the United Kingdom rather than the U.S.[citation needed] The conclusion of World War II drastically affected the prospects for an agreement Commonwealth trade. The United States emerged as the foremost political and economic power, HP 535439-001 CPU Fan and its policy was to promote generalized free trade, primarily through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The Bretton Woods conference, held in New Hampshire in 1944, had also created a direct link between the value of gold and the US dollar, thereby establishing it as the world’s reserve fiat currency. COMPAQ 6910c CPU Fan The war had also left Britain heavily indebted, economically weakened, and unable to absorb the flow of exports from Commonwealth jurisdictions. The Dominions, primarily Canada, directed their trade more heavily to the US market as a consequence. The idea of enhanced trade between Canada and Britain was explored in the mid-1950s by the Conservative government of Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker. IBM Lenovo IdeaPad G510 CPU Fan The plan, in response to the Canadian government’s concern with over-reliance on the United States, was to adopt policies that would see up to 15 percent of Canada’s US exports diverted to the UK. Representatives for both Diefenbaker and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan held exploratory talks, but no agreement was ever reached. HP G62-110SO CPU Fan Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, and its evolution as a member state of the European Union (EU) has meant that for practical purposes, the United Kingdom cannot independently enter into negotiations with Commonwealth states to establish a free trade agreement. Instead, the EU, as a representative of all its members, negotiates collectively. DELL Precision M6400 CPU Fan At present, the Government of Canada is in the midst of negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union.^[3] In addition, the EU, through the Lome andCotonou Agreements, have extended some preferential trade access to developing Commonwealth and Francophonie states. SONY Vaio VPC-EB290X CPU Fan In 1997, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Edinburgh was presented with research conducted by Drs. Sarianna Lundan and Geoffrey Jones, and commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat. The paper, entitled “The ‘Commonwealth Effect’ and the Process of Internationalisation”,^[5] HP Envy 17-1090eo CPU Fan measured whether or not Commonwealth jurisdictions enjoyed a qualitative advantage in trade with one another as opposed to equivalent non-Commonwealth nations. Their research found that even in the absence of trade treaties, there was a clear cost advantage in trade between Commonwealth nations, Toshiba Satellite A210-1CF CPU Fan and that the overhead costs of doing business were reduced by up to 15 percent in comparison to trade outside the Commonwealth. In 2005, Canadian writer and political activist Brent H. Cameron published The Case for Commonwealth Free Trade, which re-introduced the idea. Cameron’s argument was that unlike previous attempts, Dell Vostro 3450 CPU Fan Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) could work due to particular changes in the global economy and power structures, including: the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet bloc; the rapid development and economic expansion of Commonwealth economies; and the natural trade, commerce and cultural linkages that occurred between Commonwealth states, even without a formal trade treaty. Toshiba Satellite A10-103 CPU Fana Cameron cites the work of Lundan and Jones, Katharine West, as well as Jeffrey Frankel of Harvard University, who quantified the impact of specific economic, geographic and social attributes to international trade. The book argues for the conclusion of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements among Commonwealth countries that would eventually lead to the adoption of a CFTA. Compaq Presario A900 CTO CPU Fan Because of their very different economic profiles Commonwealth countries' interests are not always aligned. In principle, resource exporters such as Canada, Australia, and most of the Caribbean and African Commonwealth countries are complementary to resource importers such as the United Kingdom and India. ACER Aspire 4736ZG CPU Fan However, the historical trade ties between them were based on terms which were dictated by the Colonial Office in Britain. Since the former dominions and colonies have achieved independence, they are free to refuse British initiatives and seek better deals elsewhere. Specifically, agricultural exporters in the Cairns Group(including members Australia, Toshiba Satellite A10-103 CPU Fan Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa) are at odds with the importing countries at the World Trade Organisation. And of course each of these countries is free to pursue other trade policies. Notably Australia (2005) and Canada (1988), and Singapore (2004) have free trade agreements with the United States, and New Zealand (2008) has one with China. SONY MCF-519PAM05 CPU Fan Meanwhile New Zealand and Singapore are already a members of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, which Australia, Canada, Malaysia, are attempting to join (along with major non-Commonwealth countries). Furthermore, the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia would include Malaysia, SONY Vaio VPC-EB290X CPU Fan Singapore, Brunei, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Notably, all these proposals exclude the UK, the place where the concept of "Commonwealth free trade" is most popular, since the UK is an EU member states and cannot negotiate independently, which is why the proposal is often tied to Euroskepticism. HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan