Australia's Export Performance in East Asia

Peter Drysdale and Weiguo Lu

Asia Pacific Economic Papers from Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: Despite the strong growth in Australia’s exports to East Asia in the past decade, Australia has lost import share in that market. Not only has Australia lost share to developing East Asian competitors, it has lost share relative to other industrialised country suppliers. The main reasons for Australia’s relatively poor record in exporting to East Asia are the adverse effects of commodity composition and loss of competitiveness in agriculture and (to a lesser extent) in manufacturing in trade growth. Competitiveness improved sharply in the minerals and fuels sector. Nonetheless, in the 1980s, the restructuring of Australia’s trade with East Asia was assisted by economic reform and trade liberalisation. Preliminary evidence suggests that reductions in industry assistance have facilitated Australia’s manufacturing exports, growth of which roughly matched the expansion of East Asian manufacturing market. Australia’s competitiveness in East Asian markets will depend importantly on future progress with economic reform and its impact on the productivity of established and newly emerging export industries.

JEL-codes: F10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 1996-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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