sheene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ies_by_exports

Expected NZ to be much higher, and OZ. UK also surprisingly high, given what we read/hear.

bourbon-biscuit

It does seem surprising but if you convert it into export per capita, which is more meaningful, the results are more congruent with expectation. I think it would make Australia the significantly larger exporter of the three followed by NZ then the UK. Is that more what you expected?

sheene

I realise the per capita concept, but when you are dealing with raw materials (minerals, milk, meat etc) as opposed to finished products, these are less labour intensive, so one would expect that fewer people could 'make' more. I was more surprised at the UK figure, as we are usually informed that the UK has very week exports now.

lardyl

Yeah added value is the real issue. If NZ cuts the timber and sends it off to be processed/made into product somewhere else then that is a bad thing (really) and many people have been gazing at their navels and scratching their posteriors wondering how we can truly use these resources to our benefit rather than being the poor miner, chopper, etc in the equation.

Australian industry dwarfs NZ as does the UK. We farm, grow, dig and gather commodities, but they mainly have lower instrinsic value than the Aus ones - eg gold, rare earths, uranium, etc. So we are always going to be behind the 8 ball unless there is innovation. Kiwis seem to be OK at this but then their ideas get grabbed by overseas organisiations - again lots of navel gazing over that isssue. The absence of medium size NZ companies that can develop these ideas is the issue IMO.

Our Nat friends have torpedoed R&D here with their policy on taxation of resarch and development.

waikatoguy

I think the most impressive on that list is Ireland's figure.

lardyl

Having worked there for a while in the late 90s, I am surprised, although much of what they did do back then was re-export, taking goods intended for the European market and re-package/assemble them. They were developing a sound pharma industry at the time though.