The latest complete ABS data is for calendar year 2025. Australia exported A$665.2 billion in goods and services and imported A$658.3 billion.
Australia’s major trading partners
| Country | Share of Australian exports* | Share of Australian imports* |
|---|---|---|
| 🇨🇳 China | ~29.4% | ~19.8% |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | ~9.8% | ~4.9% |
| 🇺🇸 United States | ~9.0% | ~15.0% |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | ~6.6% | — |
| 🇮🇳 India | ~4.8% | — |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore | — | ~4.3% |
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | — | ~3.6% |
*Calculated from the ABS 2025 country values against total goods-and-services trade. The country tables themselves use a merchandise-trade basis, while the headline totals use Balance of Payments methodology, so percentages should be regarded as approximate rather than perfectly comparable.
The important point
China is Australia’s dominant export market. Australia exported about A$195.6 billion to China in 2025, compared with A$65.1 billion to Japan and A$59.9 billion to the United States.
On the import side, China supplied approximately A$130.2 billion, followed by the United States at A$98.6 billion.
So, very roughly:
China = almost 30% of Australia’s exports and about 20% of its imports.
That means China alone represents an enormous proportion of Australia’s external economic relationship.
Approximate share of Australia’s exports and imports by major trading partner.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2025 international trade data.
There is another interesting way to look at this: Australia is heavily dependent on Asia for its export income, particularly China, Japan, South Korea and India, while the United States is particularly important for imports and services. In 2025, the US alone accounted for 25.6% of Australia’s services imports.
Is Why You Own Physical Bullion?
Australia’s dependence on international trade highlights an important reality: the value of your money is ultimately influenced by forces far beyond your control. Persistent trade imbalances, government debt, monetary expansion and inflationary pressures can steadily reduce the purchasing power of the dollars sitting in your bank account.
Physical gold and silver are different. They are not a promise from a bank, a government or a financial institution. They are tangible assets that have held monetary value for thousands of years and cannot be created with the click of a button.
When currencies are being devalued and the cost of living continues to rise, owning physical bullion provides a form of wealth outside the banking system. You don’t own gold and silver because you expect the economy to collapse. You own physical bullion because you don’t want all of your wealth dependent on the economy getting everything right.
