Non-Tariff Distortions of Australian Trade (original) (raw)
1974, The Economic Journal
This study is one of a number of studies of non-tariff instruments affecting international trade which were done at roughly the same time in seven countries. These studies are being coordinated by the Trade Policy Research Centre in London. I am grateful to the Australian National University and the Trade Policy Research Centre for allowing me to travel to a conference in London of the persons engaged in these country studies and to benefit from the parallel work which is going on in other countries. This difficult area of trade policy is at last receiving more of the attention it deserves. Hitherto in Australia there have been only passing discussions of a small number of non-tariff instruments in some Tariff Board reports, in the Report of the Vernon Committee and a few other places. This study provides a view of non-tariff instruments in Australia over a short period which has not been available before. The descriptions relate to non-tariff instruments as of mid-1972. I have tried to keep the information up to date until the time I finished the research in August 1972. Keeping up with the changes in non-tariff instruments was itself a major task. There are a few cases in which I have not attempted to keep up to date after completing the original research on these instru ments. The material on quarantine describes the situation as of January 1972 and I have not looked at dumping decisions in 1972. Thus the text should be read as applying to the period before the Labor Party victory in the December 1972 elections. I have put together in the Postscript some of the initial actions and statements of the new government which concern non-tariff interventions in Australia's inter national trade. The study would not have been possible without the considerable and generous assistance given to me by several Departments of the Common wealth Government, especially the Departments of Customs and Excise and Trade and Industry. I am very grateful to the numerous officers v vi Preface of these departments, who tried to guide me through the intricacies of non-tariff practices. I am also very grateful to the Tariff Board and the Bureau of Agricultural Economics for providing me with the data used in Chapter 10 to make estimates of the protection implied by some non-tariff instruments restricting imports. Their help enabled me to put a little flesh on the bare bones of description. Finally I acknowledge the comments of my professional colleagues which led me to polish some of the rough edges. Richard Snape and Sir Leslie Melville read the whole manuscript. Geoff Edwards commented on Chapters 8 and 13, Bob Gregory on Chapter 13, members of the Monash University Seminar on Chapter 12 and members of the University of New England Seminar on Chapter 10.
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