Competition Policy And Anti-dumping Measures

Competition policy and anti-dumping measures in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, competition policy and anti-dumping measures is: an issue relevant to a study of the feasibility of multilateral rules on trade and competition, one of the new trade issues. Some say that there is a fundamental conflict between the concurrent administration by a government of anti-dumping laws and competition or antitrust laws. This view is based partly on the assumption that trade policy may confer benefits to domestic producers through anti-dumping measures that allow them to secure additional returns by enabling them to raise prices. The entries on trade policy are here. Exporters who make price undertakings to evade the imposition of anti-dumping duties may in this way also be able to obtain economic rents. The contention is that such actions are legal under trade policy, but illegal under competition policy. The entries on trade policy are here. Another conflict is seen as resulting from an underlying principle that anti- dumping laws are designed to protect domestic producers and sellers of goods, whereas competition laws are meant to protect consumers and importers. The entries on trade policy are here. It really comes down to the question of what anti-dumping laws are meant to achieve. Some of the early anti-dumping laws were intended to deal with predatory pricing, an anti-competitive practice banned by many competition laws. But current anti-dumping laws do no longer seem to have this motivation. They are seen rather as a means of promoting fairer trade, often in the sense of the level playing field. This division remains to be resolved. Countries and industries disadvantaged by anti-dumping measures tend to argue that such measures should be replaced by competition laws to the extent that they are actionable in this way. This has already happened in trade between Australia and New Zealand under ANZCERTA, between the members of the European Community and within the European Economic Area. These are special cases where the ground was carefully prepared over many years. There is widespread agreement among analysts that a measure of convergence in competition laws and their adequate enforcement will be necessary to achieve this goal more widely. The problem in the global trading community is that there is not only a great diversity of competition and enforcement regimes, but additionally many developing countries may not have the means to enforce such rules adequately.[1]

Competition policy and anti-dumping measuresin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Competition policy and anti-dumping measures” entry (OAS)

See Also