Determinants of EU antidumping actions against East Asian countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trends of antidumping actions targeting East Asia and to examine the macroeconomic determinants of European Union (EU) antidumping actions against East Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach – A Negative Binomial Regression approach is used to estimate the macroeconomic determinants (exchange rates, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and unemployment rates) of EU antidumping actions against East Asian countries. Findings – The empirical estimation results suggest that the macroeconomic determinants (exchange rates, GDP growth, and unemployment rates) significantly affect antidumping initiations against a particular country in a particular year; in addition, the changing competitive structure and environment in international trade play a role in prompting antidumping actions, and the countries which are larger sources of EU imports are more likely to be hit with antidumping actions. Originality/value – This is the first paper to examine the macroeconomic determinants of EU antidumping actions targeting East Asian countries and the empirical estimation results provide strong evidence. It also finds that the changing competitive structure and environment in international trade prompt antidumping actions.