Antidumping as Anticompetitive Practice Evidence from the United States and the European Union

This paper discusses and develops certain observable indices of the nature and effects of dumping and antidumping policy. The object is to analyze each antidumping procedure introduced by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) for the 1998–2001 period. Using conservative criteria, we find that 68.2% of the antidumping procedures introduced by the EU appear to have a questionable economic foundation, meaning that the identified factors suggest that the conduct challenged is unlikely to have any significantly anticompetitive effect. We similarly find a questionable economic foundation in 76% of the analyzed cases in the US. The recommendation that we propose is that it may be appropriate to modify the antidumping law to take into account at a preliminary stage the factors that may indicate the presence or absence of potential anticompetitive effects.