CANADIAN FARM INCOME SAFETY NETS AND US COUNTERVAIL LAW

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the factors explaining U. S. countervail action. Factors that indicate changes in the political economic environment are incorporated into a legit model to explain th e propensity to initiate a countervail suit These factors, augmented b y variables representing foreign subsidy specificity, are used in a le git model to explain the propensity to levy a countervail duty, once a suit is initiated. Evidence indicates that factors that would lead to political lobbying are significant in the initiation of a countervail suit. However, these variables are not significant in explaining the propensity to actually levy a duty; rather, the analysis finds that su bsidy specificity criteria are the significant variables.