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The Demise of the White Australia Policy - section seven



The Asian Economic Connection


The bulwark of Australia's trade had traditionally always been with Britain, but in the 1950s "the long-term decline in trade with the United Kingdom was plainly evident and would deteriorate even more rapidly as the UK moved from the late 1950s, towards integration with the European Economic Community". When Britain finally joined the giant trade bloc of the EEC in 1973 (12 years after its original application), the large British export market that Australia depended upon so much began to dry up(33). Therefore, Australian businessmen began to look to other foreign markets to sell their export goods. Asia, with its large populations, increasing economic importance, and close proximity, began to look more and more attractive to a growing number of Australia's businessmen and politicians.

Australian trade with Britain, continental Europe, the U.S.A., Canada, and New Zealand was about 77% in 1950 (75.3% of imports, 78.4% of exports), but had declined to 42% by 1995 (54.2% of imports, 28.0% of exports); while trade with Asia rose from about 17% in 1950 (18.3% of imports, 15.6% of exports) to about 53% in 1990 (41.7% of imports, 65.1% of exports). Australian trade with Japan in 1995 accounted for 20.5% of all trade (being 28.0% of all Australian trade with Asia).



TABLE ONE
TRADE WITH ASIA: A COMPARISON, SELECTED YEARS

(Australian trade: Basic statistics)
(34*)


U.K., Europe, U.S.A., All other Total, all Year Asia Canada, and N.Z. countries countries $m % $m % $m % $m % 1950 imports 196 18.3 809 75.3 67 6.2 1 072 100 1950 exports 192 15.6 962 78.4 73 5.9 1 227 100 1950 total 388 16.9 1771 77.0 140 6.1 2 299 100 1995 imports 31 159 41.7 40 477 54.2 3 002 4.0 74 638 100 1995 exports 43 633 65.1 18 757 28.0 4 646 6.9 67 036 100 1995 total 74 792 52.8 59 234 41.8 7 648 5.4 141 674 100




The Demise of the White Australia Policy

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