Last week the ACS called on the federal government to act urgently to address an AU$14.4 billion dollar ICT trade deficit, prompting Alston to accuse the organisation of peddling "discredited 19th century mercantilist dogma".
Addressing figures compiled in its 2002 ICT Trade Update the ACS said Australians should be concerned that Australia's ICT trade deficit now accounts for 65 percent of its total current account.
Alston said the ACS analysis of Australian ICT trade figures was very misleading and failed to recognise the place of ICT in the larger picture of the Australian economy.
"All the world - except the ACS - understands that Australia is a net winner when it can afford to import goods that help to transform the products and services base and boost productivity and efficiency," said Alston.
Alston said that Productivity Commission figures show that ICT has helped other sectors of the Australian economy such as finance and mining achieve an annual productivity growth rate of 1.1 percent throughout the last decade.
According to Alston the ACS analysis also demonstrated a misunderstanding of the nature of ICT exports. He claimed that the trade deficit reported by the ACS stemmed "overwhelmingly" from low value commodity hardware.
And that he said was not unusual for most developed member countries of the OECD. According to figures obtained by the Department of Communication Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), the United States has the world's largest ICT trade deficit importing $US33 billion dollars worth of equipment in 2000, ahead of the United Kingdom and Germany each with deficits of over US$9 billion dollars.
"Does that mean these countries are going down the gurgler?" asked the Senator.
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