ABSTRACT

Countervailing duty laws are often paired with antidumping laws by their critics. Antidumping laws are targeted at countering predatory pricing of imports, while countervailing duties offset the effect of foreign government subsidies. When pressed on the matter directly, the same critics that lump antidumping and countervailing duty laws together will concede more sympathy for countervailing duty laws. Even some critics who advocate abolishing Section 301 and antidumping laws support the preservation of countervailing duty laws. The United States (US) passed its first complete countervailing duty law in 1897, and that law has since been revised frequently, with no less than ten important rewrites—normally focused on expanding coverage and improving operation—over the intervening years. Since 1979, the operation of countervailing duty laws has closely paralleled the operation of antidumping laws. Under both, cases are initiated by a private party that believes it is facing unfair import competition by a foreign government, but the US government can self-initiate cases under unusual circumstances.