Trade liberalization and the washington consensus in Australia

Abstract

Australia is almost one decade into a historic transformation, from an inward-looking, inflexible economy heavily specialized in exports of primary products to an open, market-responsive economy with a much more diverse pattern of exports. Australia has moved from having the most protected manufacturing sector of any OECD country to a set of policies that, if implemented as announced, will give it the most open trade policies among the advanced economies. It has been a slow and gradual transition, within an old and conservative democracy. But it has been consistent and inexorable, although since 1992 political cross-currents have become more important in the aftermath of recession….