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> That all being said, high prices in Australia largely come from it being a small market That doesn't explain why goods are cheaper in New Zealand[1]. If you
by nikcub 14y ago
> That all being said, high prices in Australia largely come from it being a small market
That doesn't explain why goods are cheaper in New Zealand[1].
If you have ever bought a pair of Levi's you would find that because they come from the same distributor the price for NZ and the price for AU are on the same tag, and the NZ price is consistently cheaper. You find the same on a lot of goods [2]
It is much more nuanced, Australia is specifically getting screwed. A combination of taking advantage of an early adopting wealthy market with heavy regulation, little local competition and our nieve willingness to play along.
[1] http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=New+Zealand http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_resul...
[2] http://www.2ue.com.au/blogs/2ue-blog/are-we-being-ripped-off-on-prices/20130213-2ecq9.html http://www.2ue.com.au/blogs/2ue-blog/are-we-being-ripped-off... (This story mentions that Vegemite, an Australian product, is cheaper to purchase in the UK than in Australia).
- speleding 14y agoOne obvious solution would be for Australia to start or join a free trade zone. In the European Union you are not allowed to prevent people from trading across borders or discriminating them on their country of residence, so price differences between countries are relatively small. I realize most free trade zones are between neighbouring countries but I don't see why they couldn't do a free trade zone with the USA, for example.
- tankenmate 14y agoOr better still Indonesia or Malaysia, have you seen how cheap things are there?
- wilhil 14y agoPeople always find a way... Never looked at Adobe, but, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft and more all have reseller programs that have agreements that only allow you to purchase from your own country or there are penalties/no rebates/no support/similar if you go outside - along with other rules such as making distributors only sell to partners. I'm not saying it isn't possible - I buy a lot of kit from mainland Europe where it is cheaper, but, this basically locks me out of the Cisco partner program where I would be a gold partner by now with many other benefits...
- russellallen 14y agoAustralia and the US already have a free trade agreement: http://www.austrade.gov.au/AUSFTA/default.aspx http://www.austrade.gov.au/AUSFTA/default.aspx
- lancewiggs 14y agoNew Zealand has one with China, and a bunch of other countries. We also have almost no other import barriers, grey market imports are legal and we can even easily import and register second hand cars, impossible in most countries.