China the biggest trade partner for all Australian states: Aussie report

CANBERRA - China remains the largest trading partner for all six Australian states, a report said on Monday.

The "Australia's Trade by State and Territory 2016-17" report, released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on Monday, found that Western Australia (WA) remained the biggest exporter among Australia's states and territories in the 2016-17 financial year.

WA, Australia's biggest state by land mass, accounted for 35.1 percent of the country's total exports, followed by Queensland (22.4 percent) and New South Wales (22.3 percent).

The report also found that China became the Northern Territory's biggest trading partner in 2016-17, making it the largest trading partner for all Australia's states and territories except the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which does the most trade with Switzerland.

Steven Ciobo, Australia's Trade Minister, said that the value of exports in all states and territories grew in 2016-17.

"Queensland saw a 30.4 percent increase in exports in 2016-17, followed by Western Australia at 18.5 percent and New South Wales at 13.1 percent," Ciobo said in a media release on Monday.

"Prices received for exports also increased for most states with Queensland seeing the largest increase (up 22.1 percent)."

Australia's natural resources were the most sought-after goods internationally, the report said.

Iron ore and concentrates were WA's major exports totaling A$62 billion ($49.1 billion), while for Queensland and New South Wales it was coal with values of $23 billion and $11.8 billion respectively.

Victoria and South Australia (SA) were the only states where minerals weren't the biggest export items; education-related travel services topped Victoria's exports at $7.1 billion while for SA it was alcoholic beverages at $1.18 billion.