Rethinking the U.S. Antidumping Laws with Reference to China, Japan and Korea

The stated purpose of the antidumping laws is to prevent unfair trade and to punish foreign producers for predatory pricing. The practical effect, however, is to prevent foreign producers from selling their products in a domestic market, even when pricing has not been abnormally low or predatory. The way the antidumping laws are structured, domestic producers can enlist the help of government to prevent foreign competition even when there has been no dumping. This paper examines recent trends in the application of antidumping laws, with special reference to the three East Asian trading partners of the U.S., China, Japan, and South Korea, both as a target and as an initiator of antidumping investigations. The paper points out some welfare problems with antidumping laws -- they are a negative sum game -- and discusses whether the antidumping laws are capable of being reformed. A different version of this paper was first published in 2002 and was reprinted in 2009. The present version includes a bibliography on trade, including more than 100 links to studies on trade.