Trade liberalization and its impact on the structure of investment in the Australian manufacturing sector

The objective of this paper is to assess whether trade liberalisation has improved the structure of investment from domestic to export capacity in the Australian manufacturing sector. This has critical implications for export growth at a time of losses in the domestic marker emanating from the move towards free trade and hence production in this sector. The empirical results reveal trade liberalisation has played a major role in re-orienting investment towards export capacity which promotes quicker export growth thereby offsetting the losses in the domestic market and hence safeguarding manufacturing production.