Keeping Up Pressure to Stop Chinese Product Dumping
Since first taking office in 2017, President Trump has led the charge to protect American manufacturers against China’s unfair economic practices. China, however, has continued to break international trade laws in order to undercut American companies. One of the most persistent attacks against America comes in the form of Chinese product dumping in our domestic markets.
Product “dumping” occurs when the price of a specific foreign import – like metal, tires, or lumber – is set significantly lower when sold in the U.S. than it is sold for around the world. Chinese manufacturers regularly dump underpriced, subsidized products into foreign markets to gain a foothold. Artificially lowering prices allows companies that are owned or otherwise tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to dominate foreign markets, shut down competition, and increase China’s international influence.
As we highlighted earlier this year, China regularly employs dumping tactics around the world. Despite the fact that these efforts violate international trade agreements that China has signed, companies in the CCP are regularly caught dumping products around the world.
The biggest targets of China’s strategic product dumps are the United States and Europe. This is because China is actively working to shut down international competition in order to dominate the biggest markets in the world. The CCP wants to infiltrate the largest economic markets in the world, take out the competition, and make the United States and Europe dependent on China’s manufacturing supply chain.
Chinese Subsidies and Dumping Strategy Target Major U.S. Industries
The list of products that China subsidizes and dumps into the United States is long. Not surprisingly, China is attacking sectors of the economy that are central to American jobs, supply chains, and national security. Major products and industries that are often under attack in America include:
Agricultural products and crops
Automobile manufacturing components and accessories
Chemicals
Furniture
Lumber, hardwood, home fixtures, and construction products
Metals, like aluminum and steel
Paper products
Textiles
These are crucial industries in the United States that employ tens of millions of Americans. Our companies and industries consistently beat the competition around the world. But when the CCP subsidizes products in order to undercut free-market competition, it must be stopped.
The U.S. has the tools to stop CCP dumping through countervailing duties meant to protect fair competition. By employing these duties, the administration is working to restore price equilibrium and ensure that communist economic practices have no place in the U.S. or the rest of the world.
Trump Administration Taking Action to Level Prices
It is imperative that the U.S. do everything in its power to stop this from happening. Fortunately, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has the ability to issue duties or tariffs against goods that have been dumped into the U.S. These additional costs are designed to level the playing field and ensure that communist countries like China can’t use government subsidies to destroy American companies.
As one of his very first actions in his second administration, President Trump signed the America First Trade Policy Executive Order (EO) on January 20, 2025. Among numerous other trade policies, the EO requires the Secretary of Commerce to review tariffs and duties that are in place to stop Chinese dumping to make sure they are high enough to be effective.
The Protecting American Initiative (PAI) supports a robust enforcement agenda at USTR in order to end Chinese product dumping once and for all. The American government must use all available tools to promote fairness, including Antidumping and Countervailing Duties. This will keep international markets fair by upholding rules that were already agreed to by China.