Some Accounting and Technical Problems with Antidumping Trade Cases Involving a Transition Economy: A Russian Case Study

Abstract

Antidumping laws have been on the books for many years, but it has only been in the last few decades that they have taken on such a degree of importance. As World Trade Organization rules reduce the importance of tariffs and quotas, antidumping laws are rising to take their place as a major tool of protectionists. There is controversy about the methods used to calculate the cost of production. Some scholars and practitioners view the present system as biased in favor of the entities initiating antidumping investigations. Calculation difficulties are compounded when the target country is labeled as a nonmarket economy, which was the case with Russia until April 2002, since cost figures of surrogate countries are used to estimate production costs and profit margins. This paper reviews the literature on this subject and reports the results of the authors' review of public documents from dumping cases and interviews conducted in July and August 2003 with individuals experienced with Russian antidumping cases.

Keywords: antidumping, Russia, transition economy, accounting, rent seeking

JEL Classification: D6,D72,F13,F14,K2,K33,L11,L65,M4,O24,P23,Q12