DUMPING AND ANTIDUMPING: THE RHETORIC AND THE REALITY OF PROTECTION IN INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES

Abstract

A wide gap separates the rhetoric from the reality of protection in industrial countries. Antidumping is the current reality of that protection. Protectionist interests stretch the definition of dumping as far as they may to shelter actions against imports under the antidumping umbrella. This article is about antidumping, in particular about the history of antidumping regulation and its evolution under the GATT system into a major instrument of protection. The thesis is straightforward: antidumping is the fox put in charge of the henhouse—ordinary protection with a good public relations program. There is little in its history to suggest that the scope of antidumping was ever more particular than protecting home producers from import competition, and there is much to suggest that such protection was its intended scope. The article has three sections. The first looks into the origins of antidumping regulation, the second examines contemporary regulation (antidumping under the GATT), and the third summarizes the significance of the first two.