The Impact of EU Antidumping on Lower-income Countries

This paper examines the differential effects of antidumping on the exports of countries with lower per-capita income. With disaggregated data on exports from various countries to the EU in the period 1988-2002, we find that EU antidumping policy overtargeted exports from poorer countries and imposed more severe measures on them. However, we do not find robust evidence for a differential effect of EU AD investigations on the export volume growth of countries with lower per-capita income. There is also no clear evidence that targeted exporters from partner countries with more trade retaliation capacity were less hurt by AD investigations in terms of their export growth. There is, however, some evidence, that if a targeted country had a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU, or a higher share of official EU aid in its total aid received, or a higher export price on its product, then AD investigations would have a smaller negative effect on its export growth to the EU. These findings suggest that political-economy considerations may play an important role in EU antidumping decisions. ∗Corresponding Author