“...It is a myth that the GATT/WTO system is only about free trade. Plenty of exemptions to free trade principles are permitted. The anti-dumping agreement is one such exemption. The GATT/WTO system does not prohibit dumping, defined as exporting a product at lower than its ‘normal’ value”.... and thus goes the Introduction (by Bibek Debroy) to this important volume on the subject.

“...Where do we go from where? ...the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) contemplates nothing beyond clarifying and improving disciplines. There is consensus across all five papers that this is hardly enough. More substantial change is needed in the anti-dumping agreement. There is perhaps consensus across all five papers that the anti-dumping agreement needs to be dumped, although there is lack of precision about what should be done about Article VI in that eventuality. Given the political economy within the WTO, this first-best solution is unlikely to materialise. But as a second-best, there is enough ammunition in these five papers for the argument that one needs much more than mere clarification and improvement.”

Bibek Debroy is Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS), Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi. He is a professional economist and was educated in Presidency College (Calcutta), Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College (Cambridge). He has worked at Presidency College (Calcutta), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director for a project known as LARGE, set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to examine legal reforms. He is the author and editor of several books, papers and popular articles and is also Consulting Editor with Business Standard. Bibek Debroy’s special interests are international trade (in particular the WTO), law reform and the political economy of liberalisation in India. He has been listed in many bibliographies and has been a member of several government committees.

Debashis Chakraborty is Research Associate at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi. He has worked on trade policy issues and Indian economic development. He is a Doctoral Scholar at the Centre for International Trade and Development Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Debashis Chakraborty is also a co-editor of the recently published Beyond the Transition Phase of WTO: An Indian Perspective on Emerging Issues (Academic Foundation, 2006).