Archive for October, 2009
A Review of Australia’s Trade with the United States
After China, the USA is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner. Australia is a commodity rich country whereas the US is the world’s largest consumer of goods.
Since Australia is a commodity-based economy, the largest exports to the US in 2008 were:
Crude Petroleum
Beef
Cars
Alcoholic Beverages (mostly wines)
The major imports from US were:
Aircraft, spacecraft and parts
Civil engineering equipment & parts
Measuring & analysing instruments
Cars
Source: AUSTRALIA’S TRADE WITH THE AMERICAS, 2008, DFAT, Australia
Australia has a trade deficit with the US. Last year it imported more than double the value of goods and services than it exports to the US. It is interesting to note that wines are one of the large exports to the US. Australia has been marketing heavily its wines here and the strategy is working. However as the US consumer cuts down on consumption wine exports to the US may take a hit.
Australia’s major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region. China imports many of the natural resources from Australia such as iron ore, coal, etc. As the Asia Pacific grows to meet the demands of domestic consumption, Australia will imports more engineering goods and services from the US.
Top Exporters to Iran in 2008
The chart below shows the top countries that export to Iran:
Source: The Wall Street Journal
China was the largest exporter with total exports of $8B in 2008.Germany ranked number two exporting goods worth $5.7B to Iran. Some 85 large German companies have operations in Iran and around 7,000 conduct business activities due to Iran’s dependence on German engineering and services to improve its infrastructure. Despite sanctions on Iran, Germany’s export has been increasing since 2002.
For more info: German Firms Feel Pressure Over Tehran Trade
