Second, dumping is damaging to the U.S. economy. Some observers naively argue that dumping should be viewed as a gift to consumers and happily accepted. If other countries are willing to subsidize and dump steel, we should benefit from their mistake and enjoy the lower prices. This view simply ignores the competitive realities in world industrial markets and cannot withstand rigorous analysis. As documented in my recent study of dumping in the steel industry, dumping is a periodic phenomenon that greatly impacts the U.S. industry on average only once every several years.
Consumers only benefit in the year the dumping is actually taking place.
Steel manufacturers, however, feel an ongoing negative impact. Investment and production decisions continue to be affected by the threat of dumping even after dumping has ceased. Without vigorous use of antidumping laws, the result would be a U.S. steel industry, which despite being otherwise competitive, would shrink dramatically in response to dumping. The cost to the U.S. economy in lost wages, production, and investment rapidly outweighs the transient consumer benefits from dumping. Further, the potential costs to steel consumers of countering dumping are small.