From Multilateralism To Preferential Bilateralism: Australia's Foreign Trade Reform 1983-2007

This study explores the process of the Australian reform in its foreign trade regime between 1983 and 2007.The thesis consists of four chapters with the first one as the introduction, followed by the main body, chapters two and three, and the last chapter as the conclusion.Chapter One, as the introductory chapter, unfolds the general international and domestic background in which the reform under study proceeded, Australia's unique economic status and trading position in Asia-Pacific and the global economic arena. The focal argument in the main body of the dissertation deals with the rationality, motivations and outcomes of the trade approaches adopted in the historic context, with the emphasis placed on the shift of trade policy from the rule-based non-discriminatory multilateralism to preferential bilateralism. Chapter Two examines the Australian trade reform during the period from 1983 to 1996, discussing, mainly, its trade policy innovation during the Uruguay round negotiations and its leadership in Cairns Group in promoting liberalisation in agribusiness. While investigating the shift of the Australian trade policy from multilateralism to preferential bilateralism, Chapter Three illustrates the Australian trade policy dilemma via the two case studies: Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) and Australia-Japan Free Trade Agreement (AJFTA). The last chapter concludes the whole thesis, summarizing the strengths and shortcomings of these two major approaches.