While antidumping doesn't get a lot of press, it is certainly one of the biggest issues that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is dealing with today. During the recent WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle, much media attention was given to protesters who were demanding higher environmental standards or international labor standards. Yet, little media attention was given to the issue of dumping. Unseen by the television cameras or news reporters were steel workers and members of other union organizations like the AFL-CIO who were there to defend US antidumping laws. Unbeknownst to much of the general public, antidumping regulation was a major issue in Seattle as it is for the WTO in general. From the inception of the WTO, there has been controversy over antidumping laws from diverse groups.
             In 1995, the World Trade Organization was born out of the Uruguay Round of trade talks. The WTO has approximately 140 member countries with new members in the process of joining(WTO website). The WTO can be considered a more formal extension of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) which has existed for around 50 years. However, the WTO covers trade issues that are not addressed by GATT, such as trade in services and intellectual property rights. The WTO also features binding panel resolutions. Upon joining, countries agreed to accept these rulings; under GATT that was not necessarily true. Still, WTO embodies the same spirit as GATT. It favors trade liberalization and globalization over trade barriers. In particular, one main objective of the WTO is to reduce trade restrictions, and one of the first agreements it reached was a general reduction in tariffs. (Schott, 1). For all of the WTO's promise to tear down of trade barriers, there is some concern that antidumping procedures are a covert way of hanging on to some of these practices. Since the WTO has come into existence, antidumping cases have flourished.
             Adding ...