In: Economics
Challenge: Single-country sourcing
The purpose of this assignment is to understand current challenges to international trade in the context of COVID_19 pandemic and to identify the practices to reduce or eliminate the challenges. You are required to demonstrate in-depth understanding and analysis of the given topic by including challenge background, how this challenge will affect the Australian trade with other countries, and recommendations to reduce or eliminate the challenge.
Question: Effect of challenge on Australian trade (500-550 words)
Reference Links:
Visualization on Australia trade-Link 1
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/aus/
Product wise bilateral trade data between origin and destination country-Link 2
https://legacy.oec.world/en/resources/data/
Brief on Challenge Backdrop
With the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic in China, there has been serious thought going on about the challenge of single-country sourcing. With the example of the USA, which imports a chunk of its imports from China most of which materials which go into the manufacture of final goods, adds to the situation of already rapidly spreading virus. This dependancy on China and their military aggression is bound to produce negative results on supply chain, hence trade and the ability of a country to function to the fullest without relying on another.
Statistics on Australian Imports and Exports(From Link 1)
Analysis of bilateral trade data( from link 2)
Recommendations
Diversification of imports from other countries is an option that can help this situation. Chinese products have an edge over the others because of their costs. This should be kept in mind before taking any desicions for the long run as it might not be economically viable.