Dumping and the GATT Code

Successive tariff reductions during post-Second World War trade negotiations have focused increasing attention on non-tariff barriers in international trade. As one commentator has put it, ‘the lowering of tariffs has, in effect, been like draining a swamp. The lower water level has revealed all the snags and stumps of non-tariff barriers that still have to be cleared away’.1 Prior to the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations, which began in 1964, fears were expressed that further tariff reductions might be partly neutralised by more active application of existing non-tariff barriers, including anti-dumping measures. Accordingly, the negotiating brief, agreed in May 1963, made specific reference to non-tariff barriers, enabling the dumping issue to be placed on the agenda of the Kennedy Round Trade Negotiating Committee.