Unfair Competition in International Trade : An Analysis of the Effects of Antidumping Proliferation in Developing Countries

The proliferation of antidumping by developing countries has been a subject of interest in international trade in recent years. Some of the most dramatic developments in the area of antidumping have taken place within the past two decades during which time there has been a steady increase in the application of antidumping measures by developing countries. In the years preceding the establishment of the WTO (1969-1993), the largest developed countries — The USA, EU, Canada, and Australia accounted for about 90% of all antidumping cases. However, since 1993, the new regimes in developing countries have initiated more antidumping investigations than the four traditional users combined. From 1994-2005, India was the highest user (more than the US and EC) instituting 400 antidumping cases. Following this increase in usage is the growing concern that antidumping has steadily evolved from a mechanism created to checkmate unfair trade to an unfair trade practice in itself. Since the creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), emphasis has been on trade liberalisation and elimination of barriers to trade. Thus, arguments continue to be made on whether it amounts to a tacit violation of trade liberalisation commitments for states to hide under the guise of antidumping in order to implement trade restrictive measures. It is this argument of the use of antidumping to sidestep commitments to free trade, especially by developing countries in recent times, that is the focus of this research. Thus, issues like protectionism, trade diversion, trade destruction and safety-valve arguments put forward both for and against antidumping will be thoroughly analysed