Free Trade under Fire by Irwin Douglas A

Author:Irwin, Douglas A.
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2015-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

1 The United States, it should be noted, provides indirect export subsidies through the Export-Import Bank. In fiscal year 2013, the Export-Import Bank authorized $27 billion in support to U.S. exporters through loans, guarantees, and export credit insurance. Just a small fraction of U.S. exports gets support, but large corporations (the major exporters) receive the bulk of the assistance. Boeing received 65 percent of all loan guarantees, and General Electric, Caterpillar, Bechtel, and John Deere are other major recipients. The bank has been under attack in Congress for providing “corporate welfare.” In addition, Delta Airlines has complained that Export-Import Bank financing of sales of Boeing aircraft to foreign airlines amounts to subsidizing foreign competition. Because of these attacks, Congress’s renewal of the bank’s charter has been contested.

2 http://www.usitc.gov/trade_remedy/documents/orders.xls (accessed January 21, 2015).

3 World Trade Organization 2014, 53–54.

4 Irwin 2005a and Bown and Crowley 2013.

5 There is now a voluminous literature that finds fault with the antidumping laws. For policy analyses, see Ikenson 2010 and Ikenson 2011. For surveys of academic research on the effects of antidumping duties, see Blonigen and Prusa 2003, Nelson 2006, and Blonigen and Prusa 2015.

6 In the early 1990s, the U.S. International Trade Commission (1995, 4–3) surveyed petitioners and found a simple petition would cost about $250,000. The price is much higher today, particularly if the petitioner wants the law firm to provide additional support for the petition.

7 See Blonigen 2006 and Lindsey and Ikenson 2003, 26. The average antidumping duty imposed has risen over time. The average duty was 22 percent in the period from 1981 to 1983 and 56.8 percent in the period from 1991 to 1995. Congressional Budget Office 1998, 25.

8 See Ikenson 2004, Bown and Prusa 2011, and Ahn and Messerlin 2014.

9 Congressional Budget Office 1994, 31.

10 In another case using the constructed value method, Commerce once determined (with apparent precision) that natural bristle paintbrushes from China were sold at less than their fair value with a dumping margin of 351.9 percent, and imposed tariffs of the same amount. In July 2008, Commerce ruled that the dumping margin on sodium nitrite from China was 190.74 percent. The finding of such high dumping margins is not limited to nonmarket economies. In June 2003, in a case involving polyethylene retail carrier bags (PRCBs, otherwise known as the thin plastic shopping bags one finds at grocery stores), the Commerce Department found margins as high as 123 percent for Thailand, 102 percent for Malaysia, and 77 percent for China.

11 U.S. House of Representatives 2013, 208.

12 Lindsey and Ikenson 2003, 3. The ITC ruled affirmatively in 66 percent of final determinations during the period 1980 to 1992. Congressional Budget Office 1994, 50.

13 See the survey by Blonigen and Prusa 2003.

14 For updated statistics and information on the administration of U.S. antidumping laws, see http://enforcement.trade.gov/stats/iastats1.html and http://www.usitc.gov/trade_remedy/731_ad_701_cvd/investigations/active/index.htm.

15 http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/adp_e/AD_MeasuresByExpCty.pdf (accessed January 21, 2015).

16 Since China is the target of many antidumping actions, recent studies have focused on how such duties affect China’s exporters; see Lu, Tao, and Zhang 2013 and Shen and Fu 2014.

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