Constructive Methods and Abuse of Antidumping Laws: A Legal Analysis of State Practice within the WTO Framework

This article outlines the problems of constructive antidumping methods utilised by some WTO member countries when imposing dumping duties on products from other countries, as well as their negative impacts on free trade. It highlights five such methods – the arm’s length test, the practice of zeroing, the constructed cost method, the use of downstream sales, and the captive production method – based on the analogy drawn from case laws decided by the WTO Appellate Body. The central theme of this article is that although the developed countries preach the concept of free trade, they do not follow the same in practice, and they are the frequent innovators of these constructive methods, the primary aim of which is to protect their domestic producers against the global competitiveness of developing countries. If such practices are not checked, it may lead to exploitation of the vulnerable economic position of developing countries.