Trade liberalisation and the structure of manufacturing exports in Australia

Trade liberalization has been at the epicentre of the restructuring of manufacturing exports from the simply transformed to the elaborately transformed manufacturing products which are more competitive on the international market. This has sharpened the export focus of the Australian manufacturing sector thereby providing a platform for stronger output and employment growth. However, manufacturing products as a proportion of total exports has exhibited a downward trend which has led to the persistence of a narrow primary product export base. This in turn has resulted in sustained terms of trade-induced income losses and fluctuations in export revenue and hence output and employment growth.