Reflecting re-orientation of trade flows in the 1950s and 1960s, Britain had decided in the late 1960s to re-orientate its trade and economic policy from the Commonwealth of Nations to the European Economic Community, and the 1960s and early 1970s saw a corresponding further reduction in the economic relationship between Britain and the major realms, including Australia. In 1967, the pound sterling was devalued, but Australia did not follow suit, instead moving to a peg between the Australian dollar and the pound sterling at a different rate. In 1971, Australia switched its peg altogether, to the United States dollar, and in June 1972 Britain responded to this and other changes resulting from Britain's shrinking economic presence in the world by shrinking the sterling area, effectively ending the former monetary union.