BENEFITS OF TRADE
Did you know?
Australia is in its 16th year of uninterrupted economic growth, the longest period of growth since 1901, largely a result of our economic reforms and trade liberalisation efforts over the past 20 years.
Did you know?
In 2006, Australia’s export businesses achieved their best sales ever: $210 billion.
Did you know?
If Australia hadn't reduced tariffs for passenger motor vehicles, Australian families would pay an additional $10,000 on a $30,000 family car.
Did you know?
In 2005-06, Austrade helped over 5,098 Australian companies achieve export sales worth $18.5 billion.
Trade is essential to our way of life. Trade creates jobs, boosts incomes in our local communities and increases our standard of living.
We all participate in global trade, from making a phone call to London to buying the latest plasma screen TV.
Trade creates jobs
- One in five Australian jobs is export related.
Trade boosts incomes
- Exports provide around 20 per cent of Australia's total income (GDP)
- Exporting companies, on average, are more productive and pay their workers more than companies which do not export
- Businesses of all sizes benefit from trade. Over 80 per cent of Australian exporters are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
- Trade encourages innovation and the use of new technologies.
Trade improves our living standards
- Australian businesses and families benefit from exports and imports
- In many areas, exports pay our wages, provide us with jobs, and help the economy grow
- Imports provide Australian consumers with greater choice and with products at competitive prices. Imports provide our companies with many of the cost-effective inputs they need to run their businesses, including to export
- Trade lifts living standards around the world. The World Bank says that freeing trade could lift an additional 33 million people out of poverty (those living on less than US$1 a day) by 2015.
Trade benefits local regions
- In regional Australia, one in four jobs is export related
- Exports deliver around a quarter of regional Australia's income [more..].
International investment builds trade and creates jobs
- Businesses with foreign ownership employ one in five manufacturing workers, and one in four mining workers
- Foreign investment brings new know-how and technology to Australia and gives Australians more opportunities to commercialise their inventions.
Trade liberalisation - delivering the benefits of trade
- 'Freeing up' or liberalising trade increases the benefits of trade for Australians
- In recent times, most other countries around the world have lowered their tariffs. As a result Australia now exports more freely to more than 150 countries worldwide
- Since 1988 Australia's average tariff rate has fallen from 15 per cent to 3.5 per cent, yet unemployment is now at its lowest level in 30 years
- Australian companies in all sectors are successfully competing in the global market place, including in manufacturing. Over the past 25 years, while tariffs have fallen, manufacturing output has risen by around 40 per cent and the volume of exports has risen fivefold.
No country can afford to close itself off from the world economy. As a country of 20 million people, we benefit from improved access to the global marketplace of more than six billion people.
Contacts
Trade Advocacy & Outreach
R G Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
Barton ACT 0221 Australia
e-mail: tradewatch@dfat.gov.au
telephone: (02) 6261 3224