Ah Vanna, I think its just all that US tv that is rubbing off.
We also have plenty of Aussie housewives who love their Oprah,
Days of our lives and all the rest.

As a marketing exercise, I think that HD tells an interesting story.
The Japanese and Europeans produce better, faster, more reliable
bikes, yet there is something about the sound of a Harley that
attracts people. The movie Easy Rider has alot to answer for.

You'll find that bikers in Europe look just like Aussie and American
bikers.

Yabba,
It is a sad situation when someone has to use an import as a status symbol. After the debauchery of importation, Australians don’t even have any status symbols they can call their own.

Ugg boots Vanna, Ugg boots :)
.

Chris, I very much enjoyed reading your article and also the subsequent posts. The depth of knowledge regarding the numbers that have resulted because of the policies of governments is impressive. My comments are formed by my daily dealings with a range of Australian manufacturers helping them to promote their products and services.
Put very simply many manufacturers are finding it very difficult to compete with imports which is resulting in businesses closing the doors, skills being lost and infrastructure being dismantled.
But there is much more which is often ignored, whole thing is not simple, such as the amount of pork imported into Australia from countries where farming is subsidised, the power the large retailers have when it comes to setting price they are prepared to pay for items, the different standards imposed on the production of goods such as use of lead based paint, countries keeping currency artifically low making their exports even more competitive, manufacturing businesses being subsidised by the government amking them even more competitive, inadequate labelling laws ensuring that Aussie consumers are not able to make a clear choice between Aussie made or grown products and the imported ones and the list goes on.
The level of frustration that I hear from the smaller to medium sized manufacturers in many ways is very disheartening. As for the larger manufacturers run by here today gone tomorrow CEO's and boards many don't seem to care about the long term impact they are just focussed on achieving their short term KPI's achieving their massive bonuses and of course the ubiquitous "increasing shareholder value". Meanwhile they are systematically dismanteling the very things that have help make Australia one of the best places to live on the planet.
I am worried that at the end of the mining boom people will look around to what remains after everything has been dug up or is not needed more and see very little. We may well be like the island in South Pacific which for many years survived on phosphate until it was exhausted.

Chris, not sure about that $10 per TV. It might have been correct for
a while when container charges were zero dollars for a while.
However at a $10,000 a container charge across the Pacific, and that
is a lot shorter than to Europe, it means 1000 TV in a container.
I don't think a container would hold 1000 TVs.
I suppose we could work it out.
Someone here might know. Even if it was $20 per TV it would still not
be a big barrier.
One of the problems for the ships is that less bunker fuel is being
produced, so they are buying a mixture of bunker fuel and diesel
because the refineries are producing more diesel these days because
of the increase in diesel cars.
It gets very complex does it not ?

Have really enjoyed the feedback from this article.

I know the answers to trade are difficult for a number of reasons, so do want to pretend there are easy answers.

It is a subject I have long struggled with. I would love to undertake a comprehensive study of trends over the last three decades to take account of a number of impacts.

Bazz, you may be right. My source comes from a 2009 US publication on security issues