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Australian trade, investment & economy

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State-owned enterprises: A strange fixation

Mike Callaghan is spot-on in arguing that Australia's foreign investment policy needs a wider reassessment than simply looking at limits on state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Let's try to take this a bit further. This fixation with SOEs is a peculiarly American priority seen also in the Trans-Pacific

By Stephen Grenville

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Are we measuring international trade correctly?

Perhaps the most fundamental change in international trade in recent decades has been the development of multinational 'supply chains'. The production process has been 'unbundled', with different stages of production taking place in different countries. An iPad is assembled in China, but only $10 of

By Stephen Grenville

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Australia's economic diplomacy: Enlightened self-interest?

Almost a year since the Coalition took the reins of government and introduced its policy of 'economic diplomacy', a term which was probably foreign to many Australians at the time, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb launched the Government's Economic

By Alex Oliver

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What next for multilateral trade negotiations?

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is sounding despondent after the latest setback to the December 2013 Bali Agreement. Meanwhile, a survey of exporters has given some endorsement for the alternative path of free trade agreements (FTAs). Is there any hope for furthering the

By Stephen Grenville

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Australia's economy: Stimulus, saving and the GFC

John Edwards' Beyond the Boom is a welcome follow-up to his 2006 Quiet Boom, which I reviewed at the time in conjunction with Ian Macfarlane's Boyer Lectures. I agree with the argument that economic reform should not be sold on the basis of a faux crisis or economic failure narrative. If proposed

By Stephen Kirchner

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Resources boom: Australia's misplaced pessimism

'We'll all be rooned,' said Hanrahan, 'before the year is out.' Pessimism is a key part of the great Australian tradition, reflecting a history of booms and busts. It has infected the debate on the mining boom of the past decade. But how does it make sense to treat a once-in-a-century windfall

By Stephen Grenville

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Hillary Clinton's trade warning: Can China coerce Australia?

Hillary Clinton believes Australia is too economically dependent on China, warning that dependence could 'undermine your freedom of movement and your sovereignty — economic and political'. Citing the example of European dependence on Russian gas, Clinton urges Australia to diversify its

By Darren Lim

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Beyond the boom

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr John Edwards, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, challenges the pessimism about the Australian economy. The mining boom is far from over – and it hasn’t been as important for Australian prosperity as widely believed.

By John Edwards

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Foreign direct investment: Ten simple questions

1. Why is FDI so sensitive? Here is an impolite truth about international commerce: governments, even 'liberal capitalist' ones, are obsessed with sovereignty. Foreign direct investment (FDI) represents a breach of sovereignty. This year's Lowy Institute Poll shows that most Australians view FDI

By Julian Snelder

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Foreign-investment anxiety revealed in Lowy Poll

I've just written on the widespread antipathy in Indonesia to foreign investment, and how it is colouring the presidential election campaign. I attributed this hostility to the historical experience of colonialism. Now the Lowy Institute's annual poll reminds us that a similar (if less pronounced

By Stephen Grenville

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What the Vietnam-China standoff means for Australia's foreign investment debate

There is an active dialogue happening here on The Interpreter about the China-Vietnam oil rig confrontation, and I can't add much to the strategic dimensions of the debate. But there are a couple of additional aspects that are relevant to industry and business observers. The first is that,

By Julian Snelder

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Australia and the Indian elections: Economic considerations

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop with senior BJP member Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, 18 November 2013. The largest peacetime operation in world history is underway, with 815 million Indian voters heading to the polls between 7 April and 12 May in a nine-phase general election. Opinion polls are

By Sarah Graham

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What Abbott's business delegation can learn in Japan, Korea and China

Prime Minister Abbott's team for his current visit to Japan, South Korea and China is certainly business-heavy. So too was his warm-up speech, which one observer suggested might be seen as 'a tad too mercantilist'. Nothing wrong with that. Concentrating on trade seems sensible given the many

By Stephen Grenville

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A union with New Zealand for a larger Australia?

There are various possibilities for a Larger Australia. Michael Fullilove's path is to put more of our national resources into defence and diplomacy, as well as growing our population through increased migration and fertility, creating an Australia which walks taller on the world stage. A very

By Stephen Grenville

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The Australian economy: How does it compare?

The meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney next weekend provides an excuse to turn the spotlight inwards, towards the domestic economy. The IMF begins its new report on Australia this way: The Australian economy has performed well relative to many other

By Stephen Grenville

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Joe Hockey to the G20: 'Do less, focus more, get outcomes'

Treasurer Joe Hockey's speech at the Lowy Institute today picked up on, and in some areas expanded upon, many of the issues raised in Prime Minister Abbott's G20 address in Davos. As Mike Callaghan noted of the Prime Minister's comments in Davos, the Treasurer's speech bore the imprint of its

By Hugh Jorgensen

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Australian model or Australian bubble?

Mark Thirlwell has an essay in the March-April issue of Pacific Standard that takes a look at Australia’s recent economic success and assesses whether we can keep beating the odds. Is Australia’s 21-year run of economic growth the product of a successful economic model?

By Mark Thirlwell

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Chinese perspectives on investing in Australia

China is not only Australia's largest trading partner, but is also an increasingly important supplier of capital. In a Lowy Institute Analysis, John Larum draws on a series of interviews with Chinese investors and their advisors to look at their attitude towards investing in Australia and

By John Larum

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Into the Dragon’s den

While Chinese foreign investment into Australia has been the subject of a great deal of controversy, investment flows moving in the other direction have received much less attention. In a new Lowy Institute Analysis, John Larum reviews Australian foreign direct investment into China and discusses

By John Larum

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The Mekong: Milton Osborne presentation

The Mekong River basins are one of the most important and dynamic areas in the world for the battle between economic development’s demands for energy and environmental and social sustainability. As world attention shifts to the pending global climate change negotiations in far-off Copenhagen, the

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What does a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific mean to China

A Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) has been proposed as a long-term prospect by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC

By Warwick McKibbin, Tingsong Jiang

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Quiet boom

After fifteen years of uninterrupted growth, Australia's quiet economic boom shows no signs of ending.

By John Edwards

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Election Watch. Japan party system: shifting the political axis, releasing economic reform

This Issues Brief examines how changes to the Japanese political system, reflected in the November 9 election results, offer new hope for structural economic reforms that would benefit Australia

By Malcolm Cook

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Is the international trading system fragmenting? The dilemma for Australian trade policy

The post-World War II international trade policy framework is being challenged by a proliferation of bilateral and regional trading arrangements. Australia faces a choice over whether to join this preferential trade bandwagon and risk collateral damage to the multilateral trading system, or to go no

By Mark Thirlwell

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Lowy Institute Live: Coming undone – Australia and China's fractured ties

Australian trade, investment & economy

State-owned enterprises: A strange fixation

Are we measuring international trade correctly?

Australia's economic diplomacy: Enlightened self-interest?

What next for multilateral trade negotiations?

Australia's economy: Stimulus, saving and the GFC

Resources boom: Australia's misplaced pessimism

Hillary Clinton's trade warning: Can China coerce Australia?

Beyond the boom

Foreign direct investment: Ten simple questions

Foreign-investment anxiety revealed in Lowy Poll

What the Vietnam-China standoff means for Australia's foreign investment debate

Australia and the Indian elections: Economic considerations

What Abbott's business delegation can learn in Japan, Korea and China

A union with New Zealand for a larger Australia?

The Australian economy: How does it compare?

Joe Hockey to the G20: 'Do less, focus more, get outcomes'

Australian model or Australian bubble?

Chinese perspectives on investing in Australia

Into the Dragon’s den

The Mekong: Milton Osborne presentation

What does a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific mean to China

Quiet boom

Election Watch. Japan party system: shifting the political axis, releasing economic reform

Is the international trading system fragmenting? The dilemma for Australian trade policy

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