The WTO Appellate Body Reports on Anti-Dumping: A Critical Review

Abstract

The debate between "free traders" and "protectionists" may be analyzed carefully. Anti-dumping policy and law are recurring subjects of debate in the international trade negotiations. Now the rules are incorporated in the WTO "Agreement on Antidumping." However, nowadays this law is used as a political shield to protect domestic industries by many members. This paper argues that anti-dumping actions are obstructing international trade by domestic industry protectionism which is against the spirit and letter of the WTO. This paper also intends to evaluate the recent WTO Appellate Body Jurisprudence on anti-dumping and its repersussion on Members especially, developing countries. The result reveals that the number of initiations all over the world has increased drastically in the last decade. Neither the developed nor the developing countries argued for scraping the anti-dumping rules. The solution is to amend the present anti-dumping law to facilitate free trade by providing a level playing field for the domestic industries as well in their own markets.

Keywords: Antidumping, WTO, Appellate Body, Free Trade