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The Impact of Federation on Australia's Trade Flows*
Author(s) -
IRWIN DOUGLAS A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00342.x
Subject(s) - protectionism , tariff , russian federation , international trade , international economics , customs union , economics , free trade , international free trade agreement , economic policy
In 1901, six Australian states joined together in political and economic union, creating an internal free trade area and adopting a common external tariff. This paper investigates the impact of federation on Australia's internal and international trade flows by studying changes in the ‘border effect’ over this time. This is possible because Australian states reported intra‐Australian trade prior to 1901 and for 8 years after federation. The results indicate that federation itself produced little change in Australia's trade patterns, but that the border effect increased substantially between 1906 and 1909 when the protectionist Lyne Tariff was imposed.