Wrooooong...
'The parties agreed to co-operate on mechanisms to facilitate electronic commerce, not to impose customs duties on digital products and for each to apply non-discriminatory treatment to the digital products of the other.'
And before you start mentioning tax... APPLE DOESN'T PAY TAX IN AUSTRALIA!!! They use some shonky accounting method so that all sales are diverted to Ireland.
So my point stands... it's really just the price of shipping the stuff here (from China... look at a map! We're closer to China and it's cheaper to ship stuff here from China). People forget that they are a multinational and their stuff isn't made in the USA. IMO this is one of Apple's big flaws... they sell more stuff in the USA than they do in the rest of the world combined and always have.
Anyway, in short, for Australia:
- Apple pay no import duties.
- They don't pay local tax.
- Shipping is cheaper.
- There's a slight difference between the two dollars, but it's far less than the price increases that Apple has always had for foreign products.
The point <-------->you
You are pointing to the general free trade agrrement between US and Australia, not a specific item for apple.
Import duties are largely irrelevant from anywhere in the world to australia for these type of devices. Shipping is cheaper but apple do not price based upon cost, and apple does pay tax, via goods and services tax, and income tax. Apple adds a big fat buffer on most products between their US base, and all of the foreign prices that are based off that - protection against larger currency swings and ultimately. hell NZ prices for pretty much everything apple are higher than australia, and its not duty, nor taxes, nor gst diferences that are causing it. Plus we are sold by the same apple 'unit' as Australia.