US antidumping petitions and revealed comparative advantage of shrimp-exporting countries

The paper explores the trade competitiveness of seven major shrimp-exporting countries, namely Vietnam, China, Thailand, Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Mexico, to the United States. Specifically, we investigate whether the US antidumping petitions have an impact on the bilateral revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indexes for each of the seven shrimp-exporting countries with the United States. Monthly data from January 2003 to December 2014 and a panel data model are used to examine the determinants of the RCA for the shrimp-exporting countries. The empirical results show the shrimp-exporting countries have superior competitiveness against the shrimp market in the United States. Moreover, the RCA indexes are significantly negatively influenced by shrimp prices, and are positively affected by US income per capita. However, the EMS (Early Mortality Syndrome) shrimp disease, domestic US shrimp quantity, exchange rates and US antidumping laws are found to have no significant impacts on the RCA indexes. In terms of policy implications, the United States should try to reduce production costs of shrimp in the US market instead of imposing antidumping petitions. Moreover, the shrimp-exporting countries should try to maintain their comparative advantage and diversify into new markets.

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researchPaper US Antidumping Petitions and Revealed Comparative Advantage of Shrimp Exporting Countries C-L. Chang (Chia-Lin), M.J. McAleer (Michael) and D.K. Nguyen (Dank-Khoa)