Market Access Issues
Just as you will need to keep a close watch on the business relationship that underpins your export activities, you should also be aware of the bigger picture. Your access to a market may change according to shifts in the political and economic environment. At a simple level exchange rate fluctuations may affect your costings. Similarly, trade negotiations at a government-to-government level may also hinder or help you.
The finalisation of bilateral trade agreements may result in the lowering of tariffs or barriers and improve your competitiveness in a market that had previously seemed prohibitive. Information on trade agreements is often made public through normal media channels. Detailed information can also be obtained from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which manages the trade agreement agenda.
In the course of your exporting experience you may encounter a trade barrier that restricts your access to a particular market, for example; arbitrary or discriminatory tariffs, quotas, internal tax rates or product standards and subsidies that act as export disincentives. If you encounter this situation you should provide specific information on the problem, detailing how it adversely affects your export activities, to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, for consideration of whether it may be pursued through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or on a country to country basis.
