| Abstract: |
A wide gap separates the rhetoric from the reality of protectionin industrial countries. Antidumping is the current realityof that protection. Protectionist interests stretch the definitionof dumping as far as they may to shelter actions against importsunder the antidumping umbrella. This article is about antidumping, in particular about the historyof antidumping regulation and its evolution under the GATT systeminto a major instrument of protection. The thesis is straightforward:antidumping is the fox put in charge of the henhouse—ordinaryprotection with a good public relations program. There is littlein its history to suggest that the scope of antidumping wasever more particular than protecting home producers from importcompetition, and there is much to suggest that such protectionwas its intended scope. The article has three sections. The first looks into the originsof antidumping regulation, the second examines contemporaryregulation (antidumping under the GATT), and the third summarizesthe significance of the first two. |
