June 16, 2011 1:05PM # Antidumping and U.S. Competitiveness By [Daniel J. Ikenson](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-j-ikenson) --- SHARE 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](https://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=8099) 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.**](http://www.ghorlick.com/), 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.**](http://www.hoganlovells.com/lewis-leibowitz/), Hogan Lovells and Chairman, National Association of Foreign Trade Zones [**Marguerite Trossevin, Esq.**](http://www.jstpc.com/trossevin.htm), Jochum Shore & Trossevin, PC and Former Deputy Chief Counsel, Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce [**Robert La Frankie, Esq.**](http://www.hugheshubbard.com/Robert-L-LaFrankie/), Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Former Senior Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, Import Administration. U.S. Department of Commerce [**Matt Nicely, Esq.**](http://www.thompsonhine.com/lawyer/MatthewNicely/), Thompson Hine LLP, Adjunct Professor, “The U.S. Trade Regime” American University, Washington College of Law [**Peggy Clarke, Esq.**](http://www.blankrome.com/index.cfm?contentID=10&bioID=3189), Blank Rome LLP and Adjunct Professor, Trade Remedies Law, George Washington University Law School [**Daniel Porter, Esq.**](http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?contentID=24&itemID=15608), Winston & Strawn LLP [**Daniel Ikenson**](https://www.cato.org/people/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. ##### Related Tags [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).