Fast Facts about Trade
Australia’s trade in 2007
- Australia’s trade in goods and services totalled $454.3 billion
- Australia’s trade accounted for about 1 per cent of world trade
- Our largest merchandise trading partners were China, Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea
Exports in 2007
- Australian goods and services exports were valued at $217.5 billion
- Australia’s top five merchandise export markets were Japan ($31.8 billion), China ($23.6 billion), Republic of Korea ($13.5 billion), United States ($10 billion) and New Zealand ($9.5 billion)
- Merchandise exports to China increased by 15.8 per cent and to Malaysia by 12.4 per cent
- Major merchandise and service exports were coal, iron ore, education services, personal travel, gold, crude petroleum, aluminium ores, aluminium, professional and technical services, natural gas, other ores, beef, and passenger transportation services
- Merchandise exports to the Asia–Pacific region were valued at $120 billion; to North Asia, $78 billion; to the European Union, $19 billion; and to North America, $12 billion
- Australia’s largest individual merchandise export items were coal ($21 billion), iron ore ($16 billion) and non-monetary gold ($11 billion)
- Service exports reached $48 billion—22 per cent of total exports—led by education services
- Australia’s exports of elaborately transformed manufactures, or ETMs, rose by 8 per cent to $30 billion
Imports in 2007
- Imports of primary products were valued at $36 billion, imports of manufactures at $145 billion and imports of services at $46 billion
- China was Australia’s largest source of merchandise imports (valued at $29 billion or 15.5 per cent of the total), followed by the United States ($23.7 billion) and Japan ($18 billion)
- Australia’s largest import items were crude petroleum (valued at $15 billion) and passenger motor vehicles ($14 billion)
Creative Australian exporters—some examples
- Sydney, New South Wales—BridgeClimb was the first tourism operator on a bridge anywhere in the world when the company opened in 1998. BridgeClimb has guided over 1.9 million overseas tourists and domestic visitors on a climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and won a 2007 Australian Export Award.
- Melbourne, Victoria—Securency International Pty Ltd is the recognised world leader in security polymer substrate technology and security substrates supplies. Its expertise is used around the globe for the printing of banknotes and other security documents such as driver’s licences, ID cards and share certificates and exports.
- Adelaide, South Australia—Neuro Vision Technology Pty Ltd produces a unique scanning device to detect and diagnose neurological vision loss. The device is used by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to help injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Armidale, New South Wales—AllStock specialises in ovine genetics and has provided artificial breeding services to Canada, China, France, Indonesia, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. AllStock is negotiating to train veterinarians in India in artificial insemination techniques, semen collection and frozen embryo work.
- Hobart, Tasmania—Roaring 40s Renewable Energy Pty Ltd has signed a joint development agreement with one of China’s largest energy generators, the China Datang Corporation, to build what will be one of the world’s biggest on-shore wind farms—a 1000 megawatt facility in Jilin Province.
- Darwin, Northern Territory—Porosus Pty Ltd farms saltwater crocodiles and produces some of the finest quality crocodile skins in the world. In 2007 Porosus sent 8000 first-grade skins to France to be made into exclusive accessories for leading fashion houses.
Australia’s trade policy
Australia pursues a comprehensive and ambitious trade agenda to improve international market conditions for its exporters.
The federal government’s top trade priority remains multilateral trade reform through the Doha Round of negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). A successful outcome to these negotiations offers the greatest opportunity for Australian businesses to increase their access to overseas markets.
As well as supporting the WTO multilateral trade negotiations, Australia:
- works closely with our Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) partners to enhance economic cooperation and encourage liberalisation within our region
- seeks to build strategic partnerships through free trade agreements with key trading partners or other mutual agreements for trade facilitation and cooperation.
World Trade Organization
The WTO provides a rules-based system to manage international trade and resolve disputes between trading partners.
The Doha Round of international trade negotiations offers great potential for expanding markets for our world-class farmers, manufacturers, miners and service providers. Successful negotiations will mean:
- more-open overseas markets for Australian goods and services
- tougher constraints on subsidies and protectionist practices that distort trade flows.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics estimates that a successful outcome to the Doha Round could increase Australia’s agricultural exports by 3 to 15 per cent, worth well over $1 billion a year to farmers.
Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation
APEC promotes trade and investment liberalisation, business facilitation and economic and technical cooperation among its 21 members.
Membership of APEC expands Australia’s economic opportunities and provides tremendous potential to create jobs and income.
- Australian business has access to over 2.7 billion consumers in the 21 APEC member economies.
- APEC’s member economies account for nearly half of the world’s trade, 55 per cent of global GDP and 68 per cent of Australia’s total trade.
- Australia’s trade in goods and services with APEC members has increased by 7.6 per cent since 1989 to reach $301 billion in 2006–07.
Free trade agreements
Free trade agreements that are comprehensive in scope and coverage generate new trade and investment opportunities for Australia.
- The Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement between Australia and New Zealand has delivered an increase of over 600 per cent in total trade in goods since it came into force in 1983. Bilateral trade was valued at $15 billion in 2006–07.
- The Singapore–Australia Free Trade Agreement entered into force in July 2003. It offers practical trade and investment benefits for Australia in the professional, financial and education services sectors. In the three years to 2006–07, Australia’s services exports to Singapore increased by 36 per cent to $3 billion in 2006–07.
- The Thailand–Australia Free Trade Agreement came into force in January 2005. As a result, more than three-quarters of current Australian exports receive tariff-free access to the Thai market. Two-way trade grew to $13.7 billion in 2006–07, up from $3.75 billion in 2003–04. Australian exports to Thailand rose from $3.1 billion to $5 billion over the same period.
- The Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement, which came into force in January 2005, aims to boost Australia’s trade relationship with the world’s largest and most dynamic economy. In 2006–07, the United States was Australia’s third-largest two-way trading partner and third largest export market (including services). Two-way goods and services trade grew by 8 per cent to over $48 billion in 2006–07.
- The Australian Government is engaged in negotiations with China, Malaysia, Japan, Chile, the Gulf Cooperation Council and, together with New Zealand, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Feasibility studies are under way on free trade agreements with Indonesia, India and the Republic of Korea.
The government’s trade priorities in 2008
- The government’s trade policy focus in 2008 will be on achieving a successful outcome to the current Doha Round of WTO negotiations.
- The government will also review Australia’s existing free trade agreements to determine how well their performance has met expectations.
- Australia’s trade policies and programs will also be reviewed with the aim of ensuring that Australian businesses are able to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive global market.
This fact sheet is also available to download ( PDF)
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all dollars amounts are in Australian dollars. The term ‘billion’ means ‘a thousand millions’ (one billion therefore equals 1,000,000,000); the term ‘trillion’ means ‘a million millions’ (one trillion therefore equals 1,000,000,000,000).
last updated April 2008