What does antidumping mean?
Antidumping describes laws, duties, and official measures designed to counteract dumping — the practice of exporting goods to another country at prices unfairly below their normal value, often to undercut local producers. When a government concludes that dumped imports are injuring its domestic industry, it may impose antidumping duties that raise the price of those imports to a fairer level. The word functions almost exclusively as an adjective, appearing in established phrases such as 'antidumping duties', 'antidumping measures', and 'antidumping investigations'. It carries a formal, technical connotation, belonging to the vocabulary of international trade law, economics, and journalism about commerce policy. Because trade disputes frequently make headlines, understanding antidumping helps readers interpret news about tariffs, trade wars, and the ongoing tension between protecting home industries and keeping consumer prices low.
adjectiveRelating to or designed to counteract the dumping of goods in a market at unfairly low prices, typically through duties or other trade measures imposed on such imports.
- Designating laws, duties, or measures that counteract the import of goods sold at unfairly low prices (below their normal value in the home market).
"The government imposed antidumping duties on cheap steel imports to protect domestic manufacturers."
"The European Union launched an antidumping investigation into imported solar panels."
"Under WTO rules, a country may levy antidumping duties only after proving that its domestic industry has been materially injured."
The word 'dumping' for selling goods abroad at rock-bottom prices was borrowed from the everyday act of dumping rubbish — and trade lawyers have been fighting it ever since.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of antidumping
The term combines the prefix 'anti-' (from Greek, via Latin and French) with 'dumping', the practice of selling exported goods at abnormally low prices. 'Dump' itself is of uncertain origin, possibly borrowed from a Scandinavian source, and originally referred to discarding or unloading refuse before being extended to commercial contexts in the nineteenth century. Antidumping emerged as a term of trade policy in the early twentieth century as nations began legislating against predatory export pricing, and it is now standardized in World Trade Organization terminology.
How antidumping is actually used
Almost always used attributively before nouns such as 'duties', 'measures', 'laws', or 'investigations'; it rarely stands alone as a predicate adjective. The term belongs chiefly to formal legal, governmental, and economic register and is strongly associated with international trade law under the WTO Antidumping Agreement.
Easily confused with antidumping
Countervailing duties offset foreign government subsidies, whereas antidumping duties offset goods sold below fair value.