Manufacturing, Market Policy and Exports in Australia: Emulating the East Asian Economic Miracle

This paper considers industry policy and manufacturing in Australia by discussing the levels of tariffs and assistance by the Australian state. Australian policymakers have long been fascinated by the rise of East Asia and attempted to emulate a similar high-tech manufacturing industry via neo-liberal deregulation. Such a deregulation was of course was never part of the origin of the East Asian miracle until the 1980s. When it did occur however its effects soon became acutely visible in 1997-1998 across Asian economies. The paper does not discuss whether a singular East Asian economic model exists. Nor does it debate the validity of the project apparently contained in the government policy since the 1980s. More to the point, this paper raises the market policy movement that took inspiration from fixed perceptions of the East Asian economic mira-cle which was frequently (but not necessarily correctly) identified with neo-liberal deregulation. In the paper, the exports of elaborately transformed manufactures, especially during the Howard Coalition government (1996-2007) period, are analysed. What is Australia’s trade performance in such manufactures, including elaborately transformed manufactures? What is the debate on the current support mechanisms? Most importantly, what has the 1990s-2000s neoliberal market governance achieved in Australia? The paper covers these questions and reflects on the nature of Australian manufacturing exports to Japan.