Opinion
Issue No. 30 - August/September 2006
Export barriers: what’s stopping us?
by Penelope Herbert
While many micro-solutions have been applied to address individual export issues in South Australia, some crucial infrastructure projects have been completed recently at the macro level that facilitate significant export growth, such as the development of Port Adelaide’s Outer Harbor and the Adelaide Airport.
The gains from these strategic macro-solutions will flow through to the economy, but several other macro-issues remain at the heart of the South Australian export growth challenge:
- diversifying the State’s export base
- encouraging economies of scale
- identifying and removing specific barriers
- gathering and disseminating market intelligence
- identifying and completing more infrastructure projects
- fostering an entrepreneurial culture.
Some of these issues have been identified by the South Australian Export Council and are being actioned1. Others will demand changes of heart and mind and a willing spirit of collaboration between industry and government.
Diversifying the export base
SA’s merchandise export base largely consists of bulk agricultural grains, wine, automotive and manufactured exports2. But the State’s merchandise export position is often inaccurately stated, since merchandise exports often are not attributed to SA if they are shipped from elsewhere in Australia3.
Even less is known about the value and volume of services exports due to the problems in deriving accurate export data in this sector4. We know merchandise export holds the lion's share5.
And we know the State’s export composition is highly exposed. When one or more of the four main merchandise export 'pillars' experiences a setback, such as the slump in the world demand for wine or a drought which affects the wheat crop, the drop in export values in those se...
