Preventing the placing of goods on the market in large quantities at a price below normal cost to eliminate competition.
Dumping of goods into the United States by foreign manufacturers dates back to the early 1800s. After the Napoleonic Wars, both the British and the French dumped products on the U.S. market, and Congress responded by passing protectionist tariffs. The practice continued sporadically throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, although not on a large scale. After World War I, American manufacturers and legislators once again feared an increase in dumping. Congress responded by passing the Fordney-McCumber Tariff, which returned the protectionist rates to their prewar level and provided for remedies against unfair foreign competition. The U.S. Antidumping Act of 1921 remained in effect until the adoption in 1967 of the international dumping code during the Kennedy Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This provision was included in GATT to ensure the acceptance by the signatories of the negotiations and to prevent foreign countries from using antidumping laws as tariff barriers against American manufacturers. In 1979 Congress authorized the secretary of the treasury to use broad discretionary powers to investigate antidumping claims and determine fair value and injury. Traditionally, antidumping laws have dealt with goods; changes in trade during the twentieth century forced Congress to address the social dumping of large labor-intensive surpluses produced overseas—by Japan during the first part of the twentieth century and, more recently, by China.
