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FIFTY YEARS OF TRADE POLICY REFORM IN AUSTRALIA
Author(s) -
LLOYD PETER
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
economic papers: a journal of applied economics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1759-3441
pISSN - 0812-0439
DOI - 10.1111/j.1759-3441.2006.tb00404.x
Subject(s) - protectionism , tariff , economics , commercial policy , free trade , international economics , international trade , trade barrier , regionalism (politics) , political science , law , politics , democracy
The record of trade policy is examined in terms of the statistics of nominal and effective protection available to Australian producers in the manufacturing, agricultural and mining industries. New fifty year series of the average tariffs on all goods and on dutiable goods are compiled. While the progress of reform was uneven, the period saw the triumph of liberal free trade views. Two lessons are drawn from this experience. First, ‘economics matters’. The development of ideas such as effective protection, the Harberger Triangle, and the non‐equivalence of quantity‐based and price‐based interventions greatly advanced the reform agenda. Second, ‘independent advice matters’. The Tariff Board and its successors steadily developed measures and ideas that demonstrated the costs of protectionism. Yet problems of residual protectionism, rampant regionalism, and WTO failure leave much to be done.