Part I · Chapter 11
Australia & New Zealand
What does it take to sell into two developed markets that publish every rule in advance and enforce each one to the letter? This chapter is for first-time exporters who want to learn a rich market without the scale of America or the bureaucracy of Europe, and for firms already in Australia weighing its smaller neighbour. It explains why Indian exporters actually claim the duty cuts under the Australian trade agreement, which they rarely do elsewhere, and where Australian demand is growing: building materials for new homes, generic medicines and the diaspora shelf. It describes a business culture that dislikes the hard sell and remembers a missed delivery. A section on biosecurity shows how literally the regime reads certificates, packaging and timber. New Zealand follows as a market in its own right, with a quieter way of deciding, a trade deal concluded at unusual speed, a services and skills story, and almost no Indian incumbents yet. Afterwards you can judge whether your product and your paperwork are ready for markets that forgive little but hide nothing.
Key ideas
- Australia hides nothing: every requirement is published before you ship, and enforced exactly as written.
- Indian exporters who ignore most trade agreements claim Australia's far more often, which suggests low uptake elsewhere says more about the size of the duty gap and the ease of the claim than about the exporters.
- New Zealand's loss of its own people to Australia has written skilled Indian migration into its trade deal, and services already sell there on a scale close to goods.
See the region’s dashboard on the Australia & New Zealand hub.