Even jobs you’d think are 100 percent Australian rely on our international trade and investment. Our health care professionals rely on a lot of technology, treatment methods and drugs imported from overseas. Our teachers use computers and classroom materials often sourced from other countries and teaching methods developed in classrooms around the world. Our police drive patrol cars built overseas.
Australia’s international trade and investment relationships also give us access to an array of ideas and information that we generally take for granted. Books, movies, music, computer programs, medical procedures, industrial designs– Australians contribute to, and take from, the huge global market for these ideas. Australia’s trade in intellectual property has a major impact on our way of life.

There can be negative consequences from our reliance on international trade and investment. When our trade partners unfairly block our exports, Australian businesses can lose sales and suffer financially. Equally, were the Australian Government to unfairly block or restrict imports or exports, our relationships with international partners can suffer. Using trade as a weapon can hurt businesses and erode trust between countries. The environmental impact of international trade has also attracted a lot of attention as a possible negative consequence of Australia’s reliance on international trade and investment.
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Despite these potential negative consequences, the lives of the vast majority of Australians are sustained and directed in some way by the goods, services, ideas and money that flow between Australia and other countries. It’s easy to ignore this impact when trade and investment flow. And for much of our history before and after the arrival of Europeans, Australia’s trade and investment has continued to flow though buffeted by geopolitics, changes in technology and consumer trends, and times when people wanted to close themselves off from the world and turn inward.

At ACITI, we believe international trade and investment make an important contribution to the Australian way of life.  We believe it’s important that Australians have access to information on our trade and investment practice, profile, policy and research so you can better understand how international trade and investment impacts on you.