GEP Research Paper 99/04

Anti-dumping, Trade Barriers and Japanese Direct Investment in the UK

Sourafel Girma, David Greenaway and Katharine Wakelin

This paper was subsequently published in Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv , Vol.3, 2002, pp.414-436.

Abstract

During the 1980s and early 1990s when Japanese FDI in the UK grew rapidly, a range of non-tariff and natural barriers fragmented the European market and reliance on contingent protection measures increased markedly over this period. This paper explores which factors influence the distribution of Japanese inward investment across UK sectors, and the level of FDI in those sectors at a highly disaggregate sector level. In particular, we are interested in whether trade policy and anti-dumping actions have had a role to play in that distribution. The results give support to the hypothesis that trade barriers have acted as an incentive for Japanese direct investment in the UK; this has been mainly due to anti-dumping cases taken out against Japan, and to a limited extent VERs and tariff barriers. Anti-dumping cases against other countries have acted to reduce the level of Japanese.

Issued in April 1999.

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