India: The use of temporary trade barriers

Patricia, Tovar (2011): India: The use of temporary trade barriers. Published in: The Great Recession and Import Protection: The Role of Temporary Trade Barriers, by Chad P. Bown (ed.), London, UK: CEPR and the World Bank (July 2011): pp. 243-285.

Abstract

While India did not use antidumping, safeguards, and countervailing measures (temporary trade barriers) prior to 1992, it subsequently came to become the WTO system’s dominant user of those policies. Using detailed product-level data from the World Banks’ Temporary Trade Barriers Database from 1992-2009, we first study India’s use of temporary trade barriers over time, and across products, sectors and targeted countries, to then establish changes in previous patterns that may have taken place during the global economic crisis of 2008-2009. We find that there has been an increase in the stock of products subject to antidumping measures during 1992-2009. Moreover, the percentage of tariff line products affected by an antidumping measure increased during the recent global recession, from 1.82% in 2007 to 4.03% in 2009, and the evidence suggests that such increase is larger than would be predicted by the observed pre-crisis trend. We also find a shift in the incidence of India’s antidumping policy towards China and other developing countries in recent years. Furthermore, another dimension along which India’s antidumping protection increased during 2008-9 was via the failure to remove policies that were imposed prior to the global economic crisis and were supposed to be terminated during the crisis under the five-year ‘Sunset Review’ limit. There was also an increase in India’s use of global safeguard investigations as well as Chinaspecific safeguards during the global economic crisis. However, the process of tariff liberalisation continued during such period, and it is possible that India’s use of temporary trade barriers might have helped it move in that direction.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Protectionism, India, Trade barriers
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F13 - Trade Policy ; International Trade Organizations

References

Aggarwal, A. (2002), ‘Anti Dumping Law and Practice: An Indian Perspective’, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations working paper 85, April.

Bajpai, N. (2010), ‘Global Financial Crisis, its Impact on India and the Policy Response’, mimeo, Asian Development Bank [available at http://aric.adb.org/grs/papers/Bajpai.pdf].

Bown, C. P. (2011), ‘Introduction’, in C. P. Bown (ed.), The Great Recession and Import Protection: The Role of Temporary Trade Barriers, London, CEPR and the World Bank, forthcoming.

Bown, C. P. (2010a), ‘Temporary Trade Barriers Database’, The World Bank, July [available at http://econ.worldbank.org/ttbd/].

Bown, C. P. (2010b), ‘Taking Stock of Antidumping, Safeguards, and Countervailing Duties, 1990-2009’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5436.

Bown, C. P. (2010c), ‘China’s WTO Entry: Antidumping, Safeguards, and Dispute Settlement’, in R. Feenstra and S. Wei (eds.), China’s Growing Role in World Trade, Chicago IL, University of Chicago Press for NBER.

Bown, C. P. and Tovar, P. (2011), ‘Trade Liberalization, Antidumping, and Safeguards: Evidence from India's Tariff Reform’, Journal of Development Economics, forthcoming.

Cadot, O., de Melo J., and Tumurchudur B. (2008), ‘Anti-Dumping Sunset Reviews: The Uneven Reach of WTO Disciplines’, CEPR Discussion Paper 6502, October.

Cerra, V. and Saxena, S. C. (2002), ‘What Caused the 1991 Currency Crisis in India?’, IMF Staff Papers, 49(3), pp. 395-425.

Global Trade Alert (2010), [available at http://www.globaltradealert.org/].

Grossman, G. M. and Helpman, E. (1994), ‘Protection for Sale’, American Economic Review 84(4), pp. 833-50.

Gulati, S., Malhotra, N., and Malhotra, S. (2005), ‘Extent of Protection via Anti-dumping Law: A Case Study of the Vitamin C Industry in India’, Journal of World Trade 39(5), pp. 925-36.

Hindustan Times (2009), ‘China Warns India to Lift Ban on Dairy Products’, 27 July [retrieved from http://www.hindustantimes.com].

Irwin, D. A., Mavroidis, P. C., and Sykes, A. O. (2008), The Genesis of the GATT, Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press.

Kumaran, L. A. (2005), ‘The 10 Major Problems with the Anti-Dumping Instrument in India’, Journal of World Trade 39(1), pp. 115-24.

Narayanan, P. (2006), ‘Anti-dumping in India—Present State and Future Prospects’, Journal of World Trade 40(6), pp. 1081-97.

National Board of Trade (2005), ‘The Use of Antidumping in Brazil, China, India and South Africa—Rules, Trends and Causes’, Report 2005-02-10, Stockholm.

Prusa, T. J. (2010), ‘Comments on “China's WTO Entry: Antidumping, Safeguards, and Dispute Settlement”, by C. P. Bown’, in R. Feenstra and S. Wei (eds.), China’s Growing Role in World Trade, Chicago IL, University of Chicago Press for NBER.

Srinivasan, T. N. (2001), ‘India’s Reform of External Sector Policies and Future Multilateral Trade Negotiations’, Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper830, Yale University.

The Times of India (2009a), ‘China Warns of Tit-for-tat over Dairy Ban’, 1 July [retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com].

The Times of India (2009b), ‘India Imposes Anti-dumping Duties on Stainless Steel’, 23 April [retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com].

Topalova, P. (2004) ‘Trade Liberalisation and Firm Productivity: The Case of India’, IMF working paper04/28.

Vandenbussche, H. and Zanardi, M. (2010), ‘The Chilling Trade Effects of Antidumping Proliferation’, European Economic Review, 54(6), pp. 760-77.

World Development Indicators (2010), The World Bank [available at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators].

WTO (2010a), ‘Antidumping Initiations: By Sector’ [available at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/adp_e/adp_e.htm].

WTO (2010b), ‘Safeguard measures’ [available at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/safeg_e/safeg_e.htm].