Anti-Dumping in the Andean Community : Rethinking Regionalism in the Americas in Unsettling Times

The rise of China as an important commercial partner of the Andean Community countries entailed several challenges for the regional project. On the one hand, the increase of Chinese goods flowing into the region caught the attention of national authorities, which increased the initiation of anti-dumping investigations against Chinese products. On the other hand, the communitarian regime has been relatively unused insofar as it is unfit to tackle dumping from third parties, due to structural and substantive problems. This article submits that the current anxieties arising from China’s engagement in unfair trading practices in the Andean countries, cannot be properly addressed with the existing anti-dumping rules, therefore the existing regime should be amended in order to protect local industries from injurious dumping coming from third parties. The best way forward would be to reform the existing regime, by enhancing the role of the national authorities and grant them full exclusivity in the implementation and administration of anti-dumping measures