Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent of foreign government use of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), known as the Antidumping Code, focusing on: (1) signatories' and U.S. trading partners' use of the Antidumping Code; and (2) the extent of cases brought by Code signatories against U.S. exporters and exporters of major U.S. trading partners.
GAO found that: (1) from 1980 through 1989, signatories reported a total of 1,456 new antidumping cases to GATT, with Australia, the United States, Canada, and the European Community accounting for 95 percent of the reported cases; (2) antidumping cases were primarily initiated against other Code signatories; (3) of the new antidumping cases the United States reported, over 50 percent resulted in final measures, usually antidumping duties; (4) on the average, almost 50 percent of the antidumping cases resulted in reported final measures, but only 21 and 13 percent, respectively, of actions Australia and Mexico initiated resulted in such measures; (5) from 1980 through 1989, 144 new antidumping cases were directed at exports from the United States, and 790 cases were directed at exports from its major trading partners; and (6) from 1980 through 1989, Mexico reported 40 percent of its total number of new antidumping cases against the United States.
