What are the advantages and disadvantages Trade of internnational trade, for Australia?

Question

for an assignment

Answer 1

We export a lot of raw resources, which earns us money. We import a lot of finished products, which costs us money.

Relying on product imports is bad because if we can't import, we can't have stuff - especially if we don't know how to make it! Importing is good because we can get the best stuff and it's cheaper than making it ourselves. But we do tend to import too much, which is bad because our money goes overseas.

Exporting is good because we make money! Relying on resource exports is bad because everyone has some resources, so we have to be cheaper than theirs and we don't make as much money. Lately our resources are in demand (yay!) but this is unusual. Eventually we will run out of resources, like oil, or people won't want them, like coal.