Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2020
The European Community is an important trade partner for Australia and New Zealand taking 15 per cent of Australian exports and 18.5 per cent of New Zealand exports, while supplying 23.5 per cent and 18 per cent respectively of their imports. However, there has been a dramatic transformation during the 1950s, 60s and 70s away from the UK as the dominant partner (tables 1 and 2) especially in the case of New Zealand where the UK's share of exports went from 66 per cent in 1950 to 13 per cent in 1980.
This article is a companion piece to ‘The External Implications of Closer European Integration’ on pages 73-85 of this Review. It takes the ideas set out there and applies them to the case of Australia and New Zealand. It begins by exploring the structure of the links between the EC and the two countries and then examines how the changes have an effect. It concludes that current moves do not include the aspect of EC policy which hits Australasia hardest, namely the Common Agricultural Policy, indeed that closer integration with Eastern Europe may make the impact even worse. Consequently, the impact in total is likely to be small but individual firms, particularly those investing in Europe may be able to reap substantial benefits.