AUSTRALIAN TRADE POLICY: COMMENT AND QUESTION*

Abstract

I have a threefold purpose: Firstly: to repeat and review briefly some of the things I have been saying in the last few months about Australian trade policy. Secondly: to bring to light three or four of the more important questions or issues which arise in the course of a generalised statement of Australian trade policy. To comment in this way may give rise to rather unbalanced digressions: I believe the risk worth taking. Thirdly: flowing readily enough from these two will come a plea for more public debate on policy issues. No less important will be a correlative plea for more work to be done by economists (using the Adam Smith concept of political economist) on the many important variables in the debate, about which more needs to be known. I cannot possibly exhaust the subject; hence I propose to review two fields only--both very broad--within the framework set by this threefold purpose. In what I might call Trade Policy: Part A I will sketch one side of the interrelation between internal economic objectives and trade policy. Part B will dance--very lightly albeit clumsily too--over what I have been describing as five areas of export policy. The incompleteness of the survey will readily be evident. For example, I will not be saying anything systematically or in detail about import licensing, tariff policy, or the prospects for exports--all vital ingredients in a trade policy for Australia.