Introduction: Perspectives on Antidumping Law and Policy

The successful dismantling of most high tariffs of the noncommunist industrialized world over the last thirty years has revealed other trade measures which previously posed relatively little risk to the flow of trade. One such measure is “antidumping duties,” which each year seems to grow more prominent as a cause of tension between trading nations. Although in recent months front-page news stories have focused considerable attention on the problems of dumping and the response of antidumping duties, it is probably safe to assume that the general public, and even most laymen, have little understanding of the practice and concept of dumping or antidumping duties. The primary purposes of this volume are to supply the scholar, government official, or busy practitioner with a point of departure in approaching this subject, and also to engage in an exploration of the basic policy goals of governmental antidumping measures and of the techniques of implementation of those measures. The views of practitioners, government officials, and both legal and economic scholars are included to promote an interdisciplinary exchange of views which should shed some light on the perplexing problems of the subject. To establish a common foundation for these discussions, it will be useful to review some of the essential concepts and their relation to the policy dilemmas which inevitably emerge in any careful discussion of dumping.