Antidumping and U.S. Competitiveness

Two excellent speakers,  J. Michael Finger and Erik Autor, have been added to the stable of expert panelists, who will be discussing the imperative of antidumping reform at a Cato Institute conference on June 28. (The posted announcement will be updated soon.)

Finger is the former lead economist and chief of the World Bank’s Trade Policy Research Group, and an author of numerous studies and books about antidumping.  Autor is vice president and international trade counsel at the National Retail Federation, and can attest to the ill effects of antidumping measures on downstream U.S. industries, including the retail sector.

Other Speakers include:

Gary Horlick, Esq., Law Offices of Gary N. Horlick, Former International Trade Counsel, U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and Former Head of Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
Lewis Leibowitz, Esq., Hogan Lovells and Chairman, National Association of Foreign Trade Zones
Marguerite Trossevin, Esq., Jochum Shore & Trossevin, PC and Former Deputy Chief Counsel, Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
Robert La Frankie, Esq., Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Former Senior Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, Import Administration. U.S. Department of Commerce
Matt Nicely, Esq., Thompson Hine LLP, Adjunct Professor, "The U.S. Trade Regime" American University, Washington College of Law
Peggy Clarke, Esq., Blank Rome LLP and Adjunct Professor, Trade Remedies Law, George Washington University Law School
Daniel Porter, Esq., Winston & Strawn LLP
Daniel Ikenson, Associate Director, Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

Panel 1: An Ounce of Prevention: Limiting the Scope for Collateral Damage in the Early Stages of an Antidumping Investigation

Lax standards for initiating antidumping investigations conspire with an asymmetric injury analysis that ignores the consequences of duties on consuming industries and the economy at large to produce externalized costs. Panelists will discuss the imperative of adding rigor to case initiation standards; granting legal standing to firms in consuming industries; requiring the results of an analysis of the economic costs and benefits of any prospective antidumping measures to be considered; and more.

Panel 2: Just Because It's Legal Doesn't Mean It's Right: Reining in Rough Justice at the Commerce Department

Import Administration at the Commerce Department employs calculation procedures and methods that unequivocally inflate dumping margins, hence the rates of duty imposed. Some of those procedures serve no legitimate analytical purpose. Others can be conducted in manners that are less likely to produce skewed results. Panelists will discuss some of the more egregious methodological quirks and offer some commonsense solutions.

Panel 3: Containing the Spill: Meta-Reforms to Mitigate the Externalized Costs of AD Measures

Recognizing that antidumping measures saddle other domestic interests with higher costs, stymie commerce by virtue of the uncertainty created about final duty liability, and make it more difficult for downstream U.S. producers to compete at home and abroad, this panel of experts will discuss various reforms that could reduce some of the purely punitive aspects of the current system.

I hope you can join us for this important and long-overdue discussion on June 28 from 3:00 to 6:30pm.