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The article discusses the role of Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) in the economic relation between Australia and Japan. The organization was formed in 1962 and its goals were properly discussed in September of 1964 during the meeting of the Australia-Japan Business Cooperation Committee (AJBCC) in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Among the goals formulated are the fortification of AJBCC, attracting foreign leaders, and to include the trade union representatives and the state as members of the committee.

As part of its economic diplomacy, Australia has directed intense effort into both bilateral and plurilateral trade negotiations such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. According to then Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb, with no major multilateral trade deal in decades, you have to ‘row your own boat’ or risk missing out. With the fundamentals of trade and the nature of trade negotiations changing, trade liberalisation has become an increasingly sophisticated and difficult negotiating area. A case study of the controversial TPP shows the tensions for a middle power navigating this space. The benefits of the TPP are contested and the government faces criticism of the adverse impacts of the agreement, especially investor-state dispute settlement clauses, impact on human rights and suspicion that the TPP is motivated by geopolitical drivers. In order not to lose more than it gains in moving away from the multilateral trade system, Australia must ensure that trade agreements are consistent with WTO rules and have open and fair accession regimes as a basis for signing. Finally, there is the need for higher levels of transparency and democratic accountability than has historically applied. A new white paper is necessary to make the case for trade liberalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines and analyses the main issues in the current bilateral economic relations between Australia and South Korea, particularly focusing on the Korean perspective. Above all, the trade imbalance continuously favouring Australia has been an issue of great concern on the part of South Korea. Australia and South Korea have shown disagreement over the lopsided trade issue, regarding attitude, approach and standpoint in addressing it. While the Korean side broadly converges on the view, that the bilateral trade imbalance needs to be redressed, there are four differing viewpoints on explaining the lopsided bilateral trade: (i) the Korean government's view; (ii) the Korean business sector's view; (iii) the relevance of culture; (iv) Korea's favourable perception of Australia. This paper seeks to answer an important question in the context of the two nations" economic/trade relationship: why South Korea has ever engaged with Australia on good terms, albeit with disadvantageous trade relations. In this case, the nexus of economics and politico-security is largely in action. That is, on one plane, South Korea is ranked as an important trading partner and a major export market of Australia. On another plane, South Korea politically needs strong allies like Australia which can give an unswerving support for it in both the regional and international arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses key issues relevant to a free-trade agreement between Australia and the U.S. Pros and cons of a free-trade agreement between the two countries; Range of strategic and economic interests shared by Australia and the U.S.; Implications on international economic relations.

Focuses on the reasons of Australia's continuous engagement and interest in Asia. Overview of Australia's foreign relations with Asian countries; Impact of Australian intervention in East Timor crisis in 1999; Challenges for the economic recovery of the region; Reaffirmation of the country's commitment to Asia.

The free trade agreement (FTA) between Australia and the European Union holds the promise of strengthened political collaboration and increasing economic integration. Both Australia and the European Union note increasing bilateral trade and investment. Oftentimes, data does not take current trends in global-value-chain participation for intermediary goods and services movements into account. Behind this sit the cross-border strategies and activities of business entities, whether multinationals or large, small or medium-sized enterprises. This article provides an in-depth investigation of the premise stemming from an FTA for Australian business. What advantages can politics hope to support through a business perspective? What is the global-value-chain part of the story, and what are the business challenges ahead? How can economic policy help shape this FTA to foster a productive bilateral business environment in a geopolitical and geoeconomic context in which regionalisation has taken on new momentum? Specific focus is given to the analysis of the higher education sector and to agriculture. These are two of the leading sectors in this FTA debate. Generating business value means setting negotiation agendas to target tariff and non-tariff barriers to counterbalance ambiguity in the conditions that shape the global business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic relations between Australia and the European Union (EU) have always been strong, but they have not always been easy. They have been difficult for Australia because it associated the EU with the loss of the UK preferential export market on its entry into the then European Economic Community. And because Australia associated the EU with the original Common Agricultural Policy, which combined subsidies for agricultural production and high agricultural tariffs to make Australian agricultural exports not competitive. They have been difficult for the EU also. Australia developed a biosecurity system to protect its agricultural sector: quarantine requirements and food safety standards made the importation of EU plant and animal products too costly. Yet Australia and the EU need each other. The EU, which is Australia’s largest services trade and investment partner, supplies the business services that drive a knowledge economy and provides the credit to finance economic development. Correspondingly, the EU needs Australia both as a commercial base in Asia and as a reliable energy supplier. This article analyses the drivers and difficulties in the economic relationship between Australia and the EU as they start negotiations for a free trade agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development of Australia’s relationship with the European Union (EU) by focusing on drivers and obstacles. Underlying the relationship are the burden of memory and common interests and values. It argues that, although the past still resonates, the changes to the range and depth of interests and values have resulted in a more fruitful engagement. It suggests that a history of a negatively framed context of engagement, characterised by Australian critiques of the EU and, in turn, by EU neglect of the relationship, has contributed to distance between the two interlocutors. It is only in recent years that this distance has been bridged and perceptions have changed. Australia has chosen partnerships with the EU that enhance its economic and political choices. Links with a long-term partner, the UK, are being recast as Brexit presents a new challenge at a time of Australia’s stronger engagement with the EU through a key agreement and trade talks. Finally, the article argues that Australia and the EU are critical friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In more recent years, Australia's relations with the countries of Latin America have taken on more importance as the trade and investment links between the two regions have grown. Besides this recent activity, Australia has a long history of diplomatic relations with the countries of Latin America, even though the links between the two regions have at times been fairly superficial. This relationship, like many others, has tended to concentrate on mainly trade relations and, despite Latin America's often turbulent political history, has not been affected much at all by political issues. The purpose of this article is to analyse the development of foreign policy links between Australia and the countries of Latin America in their formulative stage between 1901 and 1973. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on the development of the Australia-United States alliance relationship. Informative range of perspectives on the history of the Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty; Sign of continuing United States commitment to the region; Major foreign policy achievement of the Howard Government.

The article responds to the article "Menzies' Asia Policy and the Anachronistic Fallacy" by David Martin Jones and Andrea Benvenuti in volume 66, number 2 of the periodical "Australian Journal of International Affairs." The author claims that this article wrongly accuses historians of inaccurately assessing the foreign policy of former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies. Topics include assessments of the nonaligned movement, the purportedly militarised policy of Menzies toward Asian nations, and problems in developing economic relations with Asian nations. The author finds such views earlier than the original article had implied they were present.

This article considers the regional order-building challenges that Australia presently confronts in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). The author argues that while regional stability within the IOR constitutes an increasingly important Australian security interest, policy makers will struggle to translate the order-building strategies they have previously pursued in East Asia into an Indian Ocean context. In East Asia, Australia has historically pursued a ‘dual track’ order-building strategy centred on its participation in a US-dominated ‘hub and spokes’ alliance system alongside multilateral regional engagement. The absence of an equivalent alliance system or an established tradition of multilateral security diplomacy conversely precludes an extension of this strategy into the IOR. Growing tensions between the USA and China and between China and India, meanwhile, further complicate IOR security dynamics, while underscoring the urgent need for a more coherent approach to regional order-building. With these challenges in mind, the author concludes by proposing a range of bilateral, minilateral and multilateral initiatives that Australia should pursue to stimulate the emergence of a more cooperative IOR security environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relations between China and Australia are akin to close interdependence; however, they are not symmetrical and are sometimes even contradictory. Although China is the number-one trade partner of Australia, it is the most uncertain factor in security concerns for Australia. The Sino-Australian relationship is essentially a process of constant inter-adjustment by China, as an Oriental great power with a socialistic political system, and Australia, which is a leading middle power in the Asia-Pacific region and tends to keep its policies at a status quo. The phenomenon of both cooperation and competition in Sino-Australian relations reflects a universal law in the international political power transfer process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The re-emergence of China in the new millennium has increased global demand for mineral resources, causing a return to the Australian vision of national prosperity tied to primary exports—this time minerals. Many analysts have questioned the wisdom of anchoring Australia's prosperity to being a quarry for Asia. The current mining boom has enabled Australia to postpone, but has not removed, the need to develop new industries to sustain a high standard of living in a future marked by global warming. Innovation is essential to the development of new industries that can contribute to a strong and sustainable economy, but cultivating innovation requires serious national commitment over the long term. This requires Australia to seriously reconsider education policy at all levels and to abandon what the author terms ‘rational choice populism’—a culture of anti-intellectualism and an unequivocal belief in a form of market fundamentalism—that discourages the advanced level of investment in human capital required for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many scholars have mounted convincing cases that the engagement of Australia and the European Union (EU) has been characterised by skirmishes regarding the Common Agricultural Policy and its distortion of world markets, and lack of Australian access to EU markets. This article illustrates that agricultural and agri-food trade constitutes a relatively small portion of Australia–EU trade flows; that Australia exports more goods to the EU than in the past; and that, in some agri-food sectors, it exports more goods to the EU than the EU does to Australia. Further, it argues that conflict and competition regarding the Common Agricultural Policy need to be understood in the broader context of world trade and in the context of a new and deeper engagement between the two interlocutors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disagreements are a natural and inevitable part of any substantial relationship. This is particularly true in the area of international trade, where national interests and the domestic commercial objectives with which they are closely aligned often come into conflict with the interests of trading partners. Because disagreements are inevitable, trade agreements usually provide a framework for resolution of disputes. However, the typical dispute settlement framework established in trade agreements seldom captures the imagination of the business community. Indeed, public international law frameworks for trade dispute settlement tend not to be used for anything other than disputes of the largest magnitude or where there is a deep political issue that is otherwise insoluble. This article argues that such an approach to the crafting of dispute clauses in trade agreements is a missed opportunity. It suggests that, in the context of the relationship between Australia and the European Union, there is potential to develop a range of different approaches to address problems in an effective and accessible manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2005, a burgeoning wave of Chinese investments has set off a new 'minerals boom' in the Australian iron ore and coal mining sectors. While normally a welcome development, the state-owned and strategic nature of the investors has raised concerns in Australia about how these should be regulated. As a result, in February 2008 the Australian government declared an intention to more closely screen foreign direct investment (FDI) from state-owned sources, which both supporters and detractors alike have claimed is evidence of 'resource nationalism' in Australia's approach towards its trade and investment relationships with China. This article challenges this understanding through an examination of the characteristics of Chinese mining FDI, the dilemmas these present to the Australian government, and the relatively restrained nature of its response. Through this, Australia's FDI policy is explained as a defensive move against the potential for strategic behaviour by Chinese investors resulting from their state ownership, rather than any national program to subject minerals trade and investment to political control. On this basis, the article argues that Australian government policy instead evidences a 'resource liberalism' approach, which intends to ensure that the governance of Australia's minerals trade and investment with China remain market-based processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Karl Polanyi's distinction between formal and substantive theory, this article argues that 'an Australian international political economy' could (and should) be erected on the historical study of Australia's substantive articulations with the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Australia and Japan (the NARA Treaty) was the first treaty of friendship and amity signed between Australia and any other country. Importantly it extended most-favoured-nation status or non-discriminatory treatment beyond trade to all commercial dealings between Australia and Japan, including investment and migration and stay. It was a framework agreement that established a comprehensive basis of equality and fairness in economic and political relations. Yet it is frequently seen as not having had any substantial economic impact on the relationship. This article argues otherwise. It demonstrates that the NARA Treaty had a large and measurable effect on the intensity of investment flows and suggests that it had similar effects on the movement of people between the two economies.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NARA Treaty looked to a strengthened Australia–Japan relationship, which foreign ministers of both countries celebrated this year. Events of the mid 1980s, however, demonstrated how an adverse turn in economic circumstances can stress even a strong bilateral relationship. The two countries were then at opposite points in their economic cycles, Japan almost too successful, with the high yen putting pressure on Japan's export industries, steel in particular. Seeking to reduce costs, the steel mills transferred pressure to their Australian suppliers of coal and iron ore, through reductions in prices and volumes. This was unwelcome to an Australian government coping with a recession and worried about balance of payments and unemployment, and led to concerns about equal treatment. Although the minerals trade returned to normal relatively quickly, ambitious investment projects aimed at enhancing the economic relationship did not materialise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on free trade agreements as instruments to advance Australia's interests in the era of globalization. Political impact; Economic significance; Concern about trade diversion; Impact of third countries of Australia's free trade agreement with the United States.

Arguably, the world trading system has entered a period of greater change and uncertainty in the past two years than at any time since the end of the Cold War. At the same time, Australia faces a range of internal and external challenges to its trade policy, while having lost many of the old 'certainties' guiding its trade agenda. This article identifies four major challenges confronting Australian trade policy now and into the future: the EU agenda to inject self-serving 'governance' mechanisms into the WTO; rises in the demands and influence of developing countries within the WTO; the new trend towards bilateral free trade areas; and increasing opposition to globalisation by groups within society. It assesses the capacity of Australia's trade bureaucracy to manage these issues, warning against expecting too much of the trade policy agenda, particularly in relation to the role it plays within domestic politics in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on economic relationship between Australia and the United States. Intensification of trade tensions; Political strategies in an asymmetrical economic relationship; Marked imbalance of trade in favor of the United States.

Presents a historiographical assessment of Australian-American relationship in the 1939-1945 war. Examination of Prime Minister John Curtin's role as Australia's wartime leader; Curtin's cordial relationship with Commander-in-Chief of the Southwest Pacific Area, General Douglas MacArthur.

The article presents the 40th Roy Milne Memorial lecture of the author delivered at the Australian Institute of International Affairs in July 8, 1991 in Brisbane. He discusses the changes of the country's national and foreign policies in the past 40 years, and globalization of the economy. The author expresses that the government has implemented tax reforms to internalise the corporations and financial institutions as well as supervise the securities. He believes that world interest could be achieved through association with other countries and national maturity.

The article focuses on the criticisms of the Garnaut Report. The author notes that the article is more on the mythical arguments that are attributed to the Report. It offers criticisms on the topics of the Report which includes the economic change in the East Asia, and the cultural ties between Australia and Europe which the Report sees as an asset to the relationship of Australia with the Northeast Asia and the Pacific. Critics who reviewed the Garnaut Report include Bruce Grant, Fitzpatrick, and Mckay.