Antidumping is a threat to the liberal trading system that post-World War II Western leadership struggled courageously and effectively to create. It offers a GATT-legal means to destroy the GATT system, leading to restrictions on more U.S. imports than even the Multi-Fibre Arrangement. This book presents studies of five industries whose exports have been hard hit by antidumping actions. Each of these studies avoids the legalisms and the jargon of antidumping and answers a straightforward question: was the national economic interest of either the exporting or the importing country improved by the antidumping actions that were taken? The contributors not only ask questions and present viable answers, but also provide a proposal that offers both consistence with GATT and good economics.This book will be of interest to lawyers, political scientists, economists, and business people. It has intentionally avoided the specialized language of trade regulation so that it may be more readily accessible to anyone interested in international commercial policy.

The Japanese Television Cartel examines the argument that Japanese television manufacturers dumped televisions in the United States as part of a long-run strategy to dominate the market. This issue is used to explore the related general issues— ones of extraordinary importance that are continually in the forefront of public policy.David Schwartzman builds his argument around the landmark case of Matsushita v. Zenith, in which Zenith, by then the last remaining U.S. television manufacturer, contended that the Japanese manufacturer had manipulated the U.S. market to the detriment of domestic firms. Zenith lost, but the author insists the decision was erroneous and that dumping did occur.The Supreme Court refused to reverse the case; it took the view that because predation is unprofitable, the Japanese manufacturer could not have been guilty of that charge. The author nonetheless maintains that the analysis underlying this argument is predicated on a domestic dominant firm, the predatory losses of which would exceed those of the victimized fringe firms. But in the case of a foreign predator, its immediate losses would be smaller than those of its victims because its initial market share is small. This is just one of several criticisms of the basis of the Court’s argument and a prime example of the applicability of the economic theory developed by the author.The Japanese Television Cartel deserves the attention of all who are concerned with U.S. policy on international trade and international economic competition.