Trade relations between Italy and Australia: ‘business as usual’?

Abstract

In its early period of statehood, Australia was strongly attached politically and economically to Britain up until late 1940s for reasons of history. With a new geo-political scenario after 1945, Australia changed its foreign policy priorities as well as its preferred trading partners. A multitude of new markets emerged on the Australian landscape such as Japan and in more recent times China which in 2012 became Australia’s number one trading partner. For decades, Italy and Australia were often at loggerheads in geo-political events. What brought them together to become partners was the medium of Italian migration for a need Australian economy. Sometimes, this association is stretched to levels which the relationship never endured and especially not in engagement in trade or economic transfers. The perception that Italy might be a key economic partner was never the case, and evidence bears this out. However, the myth, possibly created from among the large Italian community in Australia, of a ‘special’ economic relationship between these two nations and economies continued to persist. The reality of Australia’s economic relations with Italy tells another story. This paper seeks to demonstrate that there was nothing special in this trade relationship which was as common as any other.