Antidumping law has been referred to as the “third rail” of United States trade policy. With American political rhetoric overwhelmingly equating the imposition of harsher antidumping duties with the expansion of fair trade, dumping issues have played a major role in the negotiation of virtually every modern international trade agreement. In most circumstances, the United States has succeeded in protecting the power of its administrative agencies, particularly the Department of Commerce, to investigate instances of alleged dumping and to levy antidumping duties on those foreign producers that sell goods in the United States for less than fair value. However, in recent years the conflict over zeroing, a controversial methodology the Department of Commerce uses in the calculation of dumping margins, has garnered
increasing attention in both United States courts and international dispute resolution fora.