3 - Foreign Trade

Summary

Australia moves into the 1970s facing some major readjustments in her trade policies as she reacts to events overseas and seeks to improve the workings of her own domestic economy. During the period under review Australia progressed further towards full adult status with her realistic, if somewhat grudging, acceptance of British entry into the European Economic Community (EEC); her entry into the ’big league’ of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); her start on a methodical examination of her tariff policies; and her as yet modest attempts at restructuring her primary industry to fit in better with international marketing realities. However, she has still to formulate definitive policies on problems associated with the use of her natural resources and with overseas investment; to find suitable counterweights to the effects of regional groupings on her trade; to reconcile her conflicting political and trade attitudes towards the People’s Republic of China; and to find ways of further fostering the trade of developing countries, particularly those in the Pacific region.