Antidumping duty (AD) is a special tariff imposed to offset the impact of goods sold in the U.S. at less than fair market value.
Antidumping duties are a trade remedy used by the U.S. government to protect domestic industries from injury caused by dumping. Dumping occurs when a foreign manufacturer sells a product in the United States at a price that is unfairly low (either less than the price in its home market or below its actual cost of production).
The process is managed by two U.S. agencies:
- The Department of Commerce investigates whether dumping is occurring and calculates the dumping margin (the percentage difference between the fair value and the dumped price).
- The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) determines if the dumping is causing or threatening material injury to a U.S. industry.
If both agencies rule affirmatively, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is ordered to collect the AD duties on top of all regular tariffs. These duties can be extremely high, sometimes exceeding 100% of the cargo’s value.