Does Antidumping Use Contribute to Trade Liberalization? An Empirical Analysis

Some supporters of antidumping have argued that this procedure serves as a kind of "safety valve" for protectionist pressure.This paper examines whether there is any empirical evidence that the use of antidumping actions has contributed to tariff reductions in a sample of 35 developing and developed countries.There is very little evidence that such a relationship might exist among the 27 developing countries in the sample.We do find some weak but inconsistent evidence for antidumping helping liberalization efforts in the experience of developed countries, which have been the traditional users of antidumping.