Export Subsidies and Countervailing Tariffs

This paper analyses how retaliation affects the profit shifting argument for export subsidies. Trade policy is modelled as a multistage game. At the first stage the foreign country sets its export subsidy, and then at the second stage the domestic country sets its tariff and/or production subsidy. If the domestic country pursues an optimal trade policy then it will always gain from a foreign export subsidy. When the domestic country uses a tariff and a production subsidy, the optimal foreign policy is an export subsidy. If the domestic country only uses a tariff then an export tax is usually the optimal foreign policy