DP6502 Anti-Dumping Sunset Reviews: The Uneven Reach of WTO Disciplines

Author(s): Olivier Cadot , Jaime de Melo , Bolormaa Tumurchudur

Publication Date: September 2007

Keyword(s): Antidumping , sunset reviews , WTO , survival analysis

JEL(s): F13

Programme Areas: International Trade and Regional Economics

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6502.asp.asp

The paper uses a new database on Anti-Dumping measures worldwide to assess whether the 1995 Uruguay Round Agreement on AD sunset reviews had any effect. Estimates from a count of revocations for a panel of AD-using countries over 1979-2005 show that a five-year cycle is more apparent after the WTO agreement than before, with the marginal propensity to revoke AD measures at five years jumping from 0-2% to 45%. A survival analysis of AD measures confirms that those covered by the agreement stick on average for shorter periods, but a semi-parametric difference-in-difference approach suggests that compliance was at least partly voluntary rather than forced by the agreement’s discipline. Moreover, much of the adjustment to the WTO’s new rules on sunset reviews came from small and new users of Anti-Dumping rules rather than the traditional and large ones.