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The steel sector plays a very important role for many countries, because of its broad industrial use. However, not all countries have the same factor endowment for steel production and trade. Firstly, the paper is focused on the analysis of changes in the position of the main steel producers and exporters of steel and steel products in the world in the period 1998−2014. Secondly, it explores if these countries achieved a revealed comparative advantage in the steel sector or if their significant market share was caused by some unfair trade practices. The research methods included the analysis of statistical data about steel production and trade and in order to find out trade specialisation, the RCA index was used. The analysis confirms that China recorded the most significant changes in its market share. However, China as well as other main steel producers and exporters in the world recorded a revealed comparative disadvantage in the steel sector. On the other hand, they were the most often participants of the WTO’s trade disputes in the steel sector. The results of the analysis are discussed and graphically presented.
Keywords: Protectionism, revealed comparative advantage, steel sector, trade dispute, WTO© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.