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The Productivity Commission (PC) has released its Trade & Assistance Review 2021-22, which explains how Australia’s system of import tariffs has become a nuisance that costs more in compliance costs than the revenue that it raises.
The PC estimates that the federal government collected $1.8 billion in tariff revenues in 2021-22, while business spent between $1.2 billion and $3.6 billion on complying with the tariff regime:
“Compliance costs increase as the number of preferential trade agreements increases and the system becomes more complicated”.
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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