PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS

Contents Introduction

Miranda, Torres and Ruiz (1998) and Finger (1993) have documented the increased incidence of antidumping in recent years and its spread beyond developed to developing and transitional economies. Clearly the use of administered protection has in part arisen because of the success of the GATT (and now the WTO) in progressively reducing traditional forms of protection including tariff and non-tariff barriers, particularly in manufacturing. The “globalization” of antidumping has coincided with a proliferation of regional preferential trading arrangements, including initiatives such as NAFTA and association agreements between the EU and surrounding countries. The countries that have been the most prolific in launching antidumping cases have largely been members of such discriminatory trading arrangements while the affected (accused) countries have often been outside regional trading blocks. Moreover, the countries adopting definitive measures against the accused are heavily concentrated among members of powerful regional trading areas. This study documents and analyzes the asymmetry in antidumping actions, focusing on the propensity of members of regional trading blocks to use antidumping actions against developing countries in East Asia.