People overseas are eating Australian food, drinking our wine, using computers with Australian software and riding in Australian fast ferries. At home, we can buy products from all over the world as well as those made in Australia. People have always traded. It's old-fashioned commonsense for us to concentrate on what we do best. Through trade, we become better off by trading products we are best at making in return for other goods and services we want and need.
Trade opens up a market of more than five billion - a market that needs what Australia sells.
For example, we can't use all our abundant coal resources ourselves. So, we sell it to other countries and are able to buy other things that we need in return. Trade equals higher living standards By focusing more on what we do best, trade helps us to boost living standards for Australians. Trade equals higher incomes A recent survey of manufacturers showed that exporters pay more to workers and sell more per worker than non-exporters. Having a bigger market to sell to means you can sell more, earn more profits and pay higher wages.