Does Antidumping Address “Unfair” Trade?

Abstract

While antidumping laws were originally developed as the international trade analogue of domestic competition or antitrust policies, most vestiges of competition policy disappeared early in their evolution. Nonetheless, the formal justification for modern antidumping practice remains founded on countering “unfair” trading practices and preserving competitive markets. We update and consolidate a relatively thin literature that has examined this issue formally. Applying a “likelihood of predatory practice” index to the European Union’s use of antidumping proceedings over the period 2001 to 2010, we find more antidumping cases that suggest competition policy concerns than do previous studies, although these are still a minority.