Cato’s Dan Ikenson celebrates the 2006 downturn in antidumping complaints and warns of a possible resurgence:

Although antidumping initiations have declined in recent years and structural changes in the world economy should curtail the conditions that traditionally have inspired antidumping cases, efforts are underway to make the law more accessible and more attractive to protection-seeking U.S. industries. If legislation like the Trade Law Reform Act of 2006 becomes law, it will change the analysis industries conduct when considering trade actions, weighing more heavily in favor of bringing more antidumping suits. And if settlements like those that prevailed in the shrimp case fly under the radar and fail to raise legal and ethical questions, antidumping will be marketable as a revenue-generating scheme and pitched with success to industries otherwise dis inclined to bring such actions.

The shelving of the Doha Round is a serious setback for antidumping reform. Without significant changes to curtail the abuse of the antidumping law, sympathetic lawmakers and petitioners’ lawyers are more likely to succeed at broadening the protectionist impact of the antidumping law.