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Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

254 points · 216 comments · doener

  1. nl · · focus · HN ↗
    Just to be clear on this - Australia is primarily interested in methods of reducing trade barriers, not any sort of political union.

    Australia is economically served well by free trade: most of its production is low cost, high quality primary production of mining outputs and agricultural goods (grains, wool and meat) where if price and quality are the primary selection criteria it wins.

    The downside of this is that Australia hasn't really got any significant manufacturing or advanced technology industry.

    But it has made Australia one of the best performing economies of the past 25 years.

    1. someperson · · focus · HN ↗
      A big part of what makes Australia a better performing economy is maintaining high population growth rate of 1.5%, mostly through immigration.

      Has had implications on housing affordability, but it's great for GDP statistics.

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macrotrends.net&#x2F;global-metrics&#x2F;countries&#x2F;aus&#x2F;australia&#x2F;population" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.macrotrends.net&#x2F;global-metrics&#x2F;countries&#x2F;aus&#x2F;aus...

      1. jojobas · · focus · HN ↗
        Per capita GDP is falling with every new migrant. I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s the kind of GDP growth anyone wants to have.
        1. rsynnott · · focus · HN ↗
          For skilled immigration, this is highly unlikely to be the case.
          1. jojobas · · focus · HN ↗
            While some are indeed highly skilled and earn well, many are skilled only on paper and end up driving Ubers. Also in the recent past many of the skilled migrants were for low-paid occupations like chefs.
            1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

              [deleted]

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