Echoing Antidumping Cases: Regulatory Competitors, Imitation and Cascading Protection

This paper analyses how an antidumping procedure in one country may lead to identical procedures targeting similar products originating from the same countries under other foreign antidumping statutes. The concept of ‘echoing’ protection is elaborated to describe the phenomenon of contingent protection in one country followed by similar protective behavior abroad. We find that ‘echoing’ antidumping is significant in Canada, Europe and the United States, three big users of antidumping law. We then provide several documented explanations for that phenomenon.Channels of transmission of echoing antidumping examined in this paper include multinational enterprises attempting to monitor the antidumping process in the countries where they are located; exports flows diverted by an antidumping proceeding becoming subject to another complaint in the market where they end up; and suits filed in imitation of successful foreign competitors.