The Department of Overseas Trade was an

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

department that existed between December 1972 and December 1977.

History

The Department was one of several new Departments established by the

Whitlam government The Whitlam government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party. The government commenced when Labor defeated the McMahon government at the 1972 Australian federal elect ...

, a wide restructuring that revealed some of the new government's program.

Scope

Information about the department's functions and government funding allocation could be found in the Administrative Arrangements Orders, the annual Portfolio Budget Statements and in the Department's annual reports. At the department's creation it was responsible for: *Trade and Commerce with other countries, including trade promotion *Organising

trade fairs A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

s and field days overseas to promote Australian made products *Trade agreements and export services *Publishing ''Overseas Trading''''Overseas Trading''
(NLA catalogue record)

Structure

The Department was a Commonwealth Public Service department, staffed by officials who were responsible to the Minister for Overseas Trade.

References

Overseas Trade Australia, Overseas Trade {{Australia-gov-stub