Australian trade policy and the SME backlash: Are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) sufficiently respected and reflected in our trade agreements and outcomes?

This paper discusses the importance of smes in the context of Australia's trade policy. The question is asked; is sufficient attention given to smes in the drafting of ftas or is the trade policy directed to "the big end of town?" This paper highlights the difficulties of enterprises in navigating through the multitude of trade agreements. One of the issues is that the documentation accessing ftas is not uniform. This causes compliance problem specifically in relation to rules of origin. As a corollary to the different documentary requirements the associated transaction costs are examined with the conclusion that Australia does not exploit its growth potential, as smes are not maximizing their contribution to international trade