The Liberal-National Government published data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that Australia recorded a $22.2 billion trade surplus in 2018, which is the highest ever for a calendar year. Australia’s two-way trade in goods and services also reached a record high of A$854 billion in 2018. Thus, it delivered 12 montlhy trade surpluses in 2018 and 22 in the last two years. 2018 was also the first calendar year since 1972 where every month was in surplus. That is the first time in 46 years.
Mainly, Australia rose its resource exports, such as metal ores and minerals and coal, coke and briquettes, along with rural goods such as meat and cereals contributed to Australia’s strong 2018 accomplishments.
Moreover, its natural gas exports increased by 69.5%, being Australia’s third largest export.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics data suggests that the imports decreased by 5.7% to $34 billion, reflecting the largest decline on record.
China is still Australia’s trading partner from 2009. The trade with China was at A$192.1 billion, or 29% of Australia’s total merchandise trade. Increases in merchandise exports were recorded with nearly all the nation’s key trading partners.
According to Simon Birmingham, Australia’s Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment stated that Australia benefits from free trade agreements.
In addition, the latest round of tariffs between the agreement with China and South Korea are to build on the economic benefits these two major agreements had already delivered for Australian exporters.
The Minister stated
China and Korea are two of our largest trading partners, and these tariff reductions will provide a significant boost for Australian businesses looking for export opportunities into these markets.
For instance, he continued that tariffs on Australian bottled wine exports to China have now been eliminated, giving further opportunities for the Australian winemakers, whereas tariffs on a variety of other exports including rock lobsters, shampoo, tomato sauce and cherries have also been eliminated.
Concluding, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-11) Agreement that was signed on March 2018, was expected to antagonize China’s increasing economic dominance, which does not participate in the agreement. In the meantime, the countries involved enjoyed many advantages.
