Your point about .. we trade with other countries is noted ... however the price of oil in USD is still the same whether converted first into Euor and then back into AUD. The bottom line is that production cost are in AUD and our income is in foreign currency. I have used the USD because over 90 % of all contracts are negotiated in USD for mineral exports ... furthermore world markets for say Nickel or Copper and Gold and Oil are almost exclusivly quoted in USD.
Recent negotiations by BHP and RIO for their Iron ore and coal contracts to Japan were done in USD. The increase in prices they received was in USD ... that is despite the fact that neither of us has the USD as our domestic currency.
