The Antidumping Act: Comments for Business

After several decades of disuse, the Antidumping Act has been rediscovered in recent years by domestic producers. However, even as American manufacturers have resorted to the Act with increasing frequency, they have criticized it as being ineffective. Although American producers undoubtedly would be better served if the Antidumping Act were to be amended in response to these criticisms, the Act, as presently written and administered by the Treasury Department, can even now provide benefits for domestic producers that are frequently overlooked. An American manufacturer who initiates a proceeding under the Antidumping Act is usually seeking to force up prices for imported goods that compete with his own products, to reduce the flow of competing imported merchandise into his traditional domestic market areas, or both. If the facts are right-that is, if the manufacturer can win his dumping proceeding, and if the manufacturer’s injuries are sufficiently severe to justify the significant time and expense required to bring the proceeding to a successful conclusion, then the manufacturer will usually achieve his goals. In addition, the manufacturer will usually begin to derive benefits from the Antidumping Act long before the dumping proceeding is concluded. Furthermore, the Antidumping Act is frequently preferable to other options open to the manufacturer for combating import competition.