Australian interest in Latin America

Abstract

Australian interest in Latin America is not a recent passion for a foreign culture and while it is neither a very secret love affair it is also not in any way a widely evident relationship. Australia is as solidly Anglo-Saxon as any WASP could wish, even though the influx of migrants from Southern Europe, and, during the past few years, from Turkey as well as from Chile and Argentina, is slowly changing the Anglo-Saxon character of the nation. It certainly is no longer true to say that Australians collectively think of England as “home”. In fact Australians as a whole are not particularly interested in anything but Australia-an understandable reaction to a world in the making of which they have had little part. There is therefore, first of all, some need for an explanation of who, in Australia, is showing an interest in Latin America, and then to examine what such an interest consists in and what it is leading to. The Yearbook of the Commonwealth of Australia 1972 records that Australian trade with Latin American countries amounted to less than 1 y0 of Australia’s total exports and imports. However, this represents about $60 000 000 and a favourable trading balance for Australia of $31 000 000. More recent data are not yet available. The interests of the business community are of course not yet as great as those established with Australia’s traditional trading partners : Japan; the U.S.A. ; Great Britain; France; Germany; etc. But there is a growth tendency which might well lead to considerable developments, and a number of Australian-based companies are looking eastward across the Pacific. The “lucky country” of the twentieth century is becoming aware of the potentially even luckier country of the twenty-first century-Brazil. The phenomenal economic development of Latin America’s giant has attracted not only the shadier business men from Australia, but also quite respectable enterprises such as Thomas National Transport and Pioneer Concrete, to name only two who have become international by establishing firm links with Brazil.