what is an anti dumping duty 
an anti dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value dumping is a process wherein a company exports a product at a price that is significantly lower than the price it normally charges in its home or its domestic market in order to protect their respective economy many countries impose duties on products they believe are being dumped in their national market because these products have the potential to undercut local businesses and the local economy investopedia mira norianunderstanding anti dumping dutiesin the u s the international trade commission itc an independent government agency is tasked with imposing anti dumping duties their actions are based on recommendations they receive from the u s department of commerce and investigations by the itc and or the department of commerce 1 in many cases the duties imposed on these goods exceeds the value of the goods anti dumping duties are typically levied when a foreign company is selling an item significantly below the price at which it is being produced while the intention of anti dumping duties is to save domestic jobs these tariffs can also lead to higher prices for domestic consumers and in the long term anti dumping duties can reduce the international competition of domestic companies producing similar goods the world trade organization wto is an international organization that deals with the rules of trade between nations the wto also operates a set of international trade rules including the international regulation of anti dumping measures the wto does not intervene in the activities of companies engaged in dumping instead it focuses on how governments can or cannot react to the practice of dumping 2 in general the wto agreement permits governments to act against dumping if it causes or threatens material injury to an established industry in the territory of a contracting party or materially retards the establishment of a domestic industry 3 this intervention must be justified in order to uphold the wto s commitment to free market principles 2 anti dumping duties have the potential to distort the market in a free market governments cannot normally determine what constitutes a fair market price for any good or service example of an anti dumping dutyin june 2015 american steel companies united states steel corp nucor corp steel dynamics inc arcelormittal usa ak steel corp and california steel industries inc filed a complaint with the u s department of commerce and the itc their complaint alleged that several countries including china were dumping steel into the u s market and keeping prices unfairly low 4after conducting a review one year later the u s announced that it would be imposing a total of 522 combined anti dumping and countervailing import duties on certain steel imported from china 5 in 2018 china filed a complaint with the wto challenging the tariffs imposed by the trump administration 6 since then the trump administration has continued to use the wto to challenge what it claims are unfair trading practices by the chinese government and other trading partners 7