Xifres de comerç exterior d'Austràlia

Foreign Trade in Figures

Australia is very open to international trade, which represents 45% of its GDP (World Bank). According to official figures, the country’s exports were led by coal in 2022 (21.2% of the total), followed by iron ore & concentrates (18.5%), natural gas (13.5%), education-related travel services (4%), and gold (3.5%). On the other hand, imports mostly comprised refined petroleum (10%), passenger motor vehicles (5.2%), freight transport services (5%), personal travel (excluding education-related) services (4%), and telecom equipment & parts (3.2%).

Australia’s main trading partners in 2022 were China, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., and India, accounting for 63.1% of total international trade in exports. The top five importing partners for Australia were China, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Singapore (data Australian Bureau of Statistics). Structurally, Australian foreign trade is highly dependent on the Chinese economic situation and the country's diplomatic relations with China. As a bloc, the EU is Australia's second-largest trading partner. As such, the European Union and Australia opened free trade negotiations in 2018. However, following five years of intense negotiation, the anticipated preferential trade agreement faces significant challenges, as talks were halted on October 29, 2023, with scant likelihood of immediate resumption. On the 15th of November 2020, Australia also signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with 14 other Indo-Pacific countries. This free trade agreement is the largest trade deal in history, covering 30% of the global economy. It includes the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and ASEAN’s free trade agreement partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea). The RCEP covers goods, services, investment, economic and technical cooperation. It also creates new rules for electronic commerce, intellectual property, government procurement, competition, and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The country's trade balance was characterised by a structural deficit until 2007, but since then the country has been alternating between periods of surplus and deficit. In 2022, Australia exported USD 412.5 billion in goods and USD 50.6 billion in services (+19.6% and +14% y-o-y, respectively); whereas imports stood at USD 309.1 billion for goods and USD 63.6 billion for services (+18.3% and +54.5%, respectively – data WTO). The overall trade balance was estimated to be positive by 5.7% of GDP by the World Bank.