Business Cycles, the Current Account, and Administered Protection in Mexico

Antidumping actions in the United States and EU are known to be linked to macroeconomic conditions. In part, this is because positive injury findings may be easier to make in a downturn. We explore the evidence for Mexico, one of the main "new" antidumping using countries. Injury determination is also critica! in Mexico's antidumping policy, as a majority of unsuccessful complaints have been rejected because of negative injury findings rather than negative findings of dumping. Working with data from 1987 through 2000, we provide evidence for a relationship between macro-economic factors and antidumping complaints, including current account and exchange rate movements, and both local and global general macroeconomic conditions.