Antidumping duties are extra US customs duties charged on imported goods that a foreign producer sells in the United States below fair value, when those underpriced imports cause or threaten material injury to a US industry. The legal authority comes from Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930, and the modern framework traces back to the Antidumping Act of 1921, rewritten as Title VII through the Trade Agreements Act of 1979.
No single agency imposes the duty. Two must agree, and each answers a different question. The Department of Commerce, through its International Trade Administration, decides whether dumping is occurring and calculates the dumping margin. The US International Trade Commission, an independent agency, decides whether a US industry is materially injured, threatened with material injury, or whether the establishment of a US industry is being materially retarded. If Commerce finds dumping but the ITC finds no injury, there is no antidumping duty. That split, pricing on one side and injury on the other, is the single most important structural feature of the system.
The distinction from a regular tariff is the point. A regular tariff applies to a product category from all or most countries at a set rate. An antidumping duty is imposed only after an investigation finds that a specific product from a specific country was sold below fair value and injured a US industry, and the rate is tied to the calculated dumping margin. The same product from two countries can carry two different rates, or one rate and none at all.
A case usually starts when a domestic industry files a petition with both agencies, and the statute then sets a sequence of deadlines. The ITC makes a preliminary injury determination within about 45 days of the petition. Commerce makes a preliminary dumping determination about 140 days after initiation, extendable by about 50 days, and a final dumping determination about 75 days after its preliminary one. The antidumping order issues only if both agencies are affirmative.
Commerce typically selects only a limited number of exporting entities for individual review, usually the largest exporters by CBP data, because its resources are limited. Those named respondents, if they cooperate fully and can demonstrate fair export pricing, can obtain an individual rate that is generally favorable, or possibly de minimis, resulting in a zero rate. For the balance of exporters that are not individually reviewed, an all-others rate is established based on a weighted average of the dumping margins of the investigated exporters.
The system is retrospective, and that changes what the rate means. Final liability is determined after the merchandise is imported, through an administrative review under section 751(a)(1) of the Act. The rates published in the order are cash deposit rates, a deposit of duties subject to change. One year after the month the final order is published, the anniversary month, interested parties can request a review of specified exporters, and the first review period can run 16 months or more. The duty you deposit at entry is not necessarily the duty you finally owe.
Check whether your product and country are covered before you price the order. An antidumping order changes the landed cost by the margin, and the margin is not in the tariff schedule. The order is a separate instrument, and the rate depends on your exporter's status: individually reviewed, all-others, or, for China and other non-market economies, a separate rate that requires demonstrating an absence of both de jure and de facto government control over export activities.
If your exporter was not reviewed, ask whether a separate rate is available. In the first administrative review, a separate rate for an individual producer or exporter can be obtained provided very specific administrative procedures are followed, and the difference between the all-others rate and an individual rate can be the difference between a viable order and a dead one.
And remember the sunset review. Five years after an order is published, Commerce and the ITC decide whether revoking it would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury. Track the anniversary month for the orders that cover your products, and file comments if the order should end. The review is the only scheduled chance to remove a duty that no longer fits the market.
Keep reading: Tariff engineering has a legal line: where product changes become evasion, Scope rulings and EAPA cases ask different questions: do not confuse them.
Dumping happens when a foreign producer exports goods to the United States at a price lower than normal value, usually the price it charges in its home market, or a cost-based figure when home-market sales are not a fair comparison. The gap between normal value and the US price is the dumping margin, and the antidumping duty is set to offset it.
No single agency imposes an antidumping duty. Commerce, through its International Trade Administration, decides whether dumping is occurring and calculates the margin. The US International Trade Commission decides whether a US industry is materially injured. Both must reach an affirmative finding for an order to issue.
Five years after an order is published, Commerce and the ITC begin a sunset review to decide whether revoking it would likely lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping and injury. If either agency says no, the order ends. Many orders survive sunset review, but the review is the only scheduled off-ramp.
The all-others rate, a weighted average of the dumping margins of the investigated exporters. If one or more investigated respondents got an unfavorable rate, the all-others rate will not be favorable either, and non-reviewed exporters pay it on every entry.