Australia and New Zealand

Australia is well integrated into world markets despite its geographic position. In particular, it offers access to Asian markets that are driving fast-growing global food demand, challenging local industry to search for innovation across all aspects of production and the supply chain. Australia’s strong mining and agricultural sectors require industrial machinery, an area of expertise in Wisconsin. In recent decades, Australian manufacturing of high-tech goods, electronics, industrial tools, equipment, and machinery have declined to levels where it is necessary to seek out international suppliers to meet local market demand. High labor and energy costs and geographical challenges encourage Australian companies to look abroad for new products and solutions in areas such as robotics, automation, remote monitoring, and predictive maintenance.

As the world’s 15th-largest economy, Australia was the fifth-largest source of Wisconsin exports in 2024. Australia’s resources are in high demand, particularly from fast-growing Asian economies, in turn creating great demand for mining and other related industrial equipment and technology services. Major capital-type goods like heavy earth moving equipment are typically imported and/or locally assembled by subsidiaries of foreign companies. The U.S. is Australia’s largest foreign investor, particularly in mining, finance, and technology. While the 2005 U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement eliminated (and still eliminates) the majority of tariffs on U.S.-manufactured goods, recent U.S. policies have reintroduced baseline tariffs in specific sectors.