Anti-Dumping vs Countervailing Duties: What's the Difference?

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties are the two halves of the US trade-remedy system, and because petitions are usually filed together, importers see them abbreviated as one thing: “AD/CVD.” But they target two genuinely different problems, and understanding the distinction helps you predict your exposure and read a duty order correctly.

The short answer

Anti-dumping (AD) duties address unfair pricing: foreign goods sold in the US below their normal value. Countervailing (CVD) duties address unfair subsidies: foreign government support that lets exporters undercut US prices. AD asks “is this priced too low?” CVD asks “did a government pay for this to be cheap?”

How anti-dumping duties work

“Dumping” means selling an export at less than its normal value — typically the price in the exporter's home market, or the cost to produce it. Commerce calculates the dumping margin (the gap between fair value and the US price), and that percentage becomes the anti-dumping deposit rate. The economic theory is that dumping lets foreign producers capture US market share by selling below a sustainable price, harming domestic competitors.

How countervailing duties work

A countervailable subsidy is a financial benefit a foreign government gives specifically to its producers: preferential loans, grants, tax rebates, currency support, or inputs like electricity, land, or raw materials sold below market. Commerce measures the per-unit value of the subsidy and sets the CVD rate to offset exactly that advantage. The wrongdoer here isn't really the exporter — it's the government policy behind the price.

Why they're usually applied together

A domestic industry filing a petition often alleges both: that imports are dumped and subsidized. Commerce runs the two investigations in parallel, and if both succeed, the product carries an AD deposit and a CVD deposit simultaneously. To avoid double-counting the same benefit, Commerce applies specific offset rules in certain cases, but for the importer the practical effect is two separate duty lines on the same entry.

What this means for your sourcing

• Because CVD is about government policy, it tends to apply country-wide to an industry — switching suppliers within the same country usually won't escape it.
• Because AD is producer-specific, two factories in the same country can carry very different anti-dumping rates — supplier choice matters.
• Both are defined by the order's written scope, not just an HTS code — confirm coverage before you commit. See how to check if your product has AD/CVD duties.