Direct answer: Antidumping (AD) duties offset foreign merchandise sold in the United States below fair value; countervailing (CVD) duties offset subsidies a foreign government provides to its exporters. Both are administered by the same two U.S. agencies under the same process — and a single product can be subject to both at once.
The core distinction
AD and CVD are the two halves of U.S. "trade-remedy" law, both authorized by Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930. They remedy different unfair practices.
An antidumping duty targets price discrimination by the foreign seller. The statute applies when foreign merchandise is being:
"sold in the United States at less than its fair value" — 19 U.S.C. 1673
and the duty equals "the amount by which the normal value exceeds the export price (or the constructed export price)" — that gap is the dumping margin.
A countervailing duty targets a foreign government, not the seller. It applies when:
"the government of a country or any public entity within the territory of a country is providing, directly or indirectly, a countervailable subsidy" — 19 U.S.C. 1671
and the duty is set "equal to the amount of the net countervailable subsidy."
AD vs CVD at a glance
| Antidumping (AD) | Countervailing (CVD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Targets | Selling below fair value (price discrimination) | Government subsidies to producers/exporters |
| What Commerce measures | Dumping margin (normal value − export price) | Net countervailable subsidy |
| Statute | 19 U.S.C. 1673 | 19 U.S.C. 1671 |
| Case number prefix | A- (e.g., A-580-883) | C- (e.g., C-580-884) |
| Injury test (ITC) | Required | Required (for Subsidies Agreement countries) |
| Rate basis | Exporter/producer-specific | Exporter/producer-specific |
Who decides — and why both agencies matter
AD and CVD share a two-agency structure. The U.S. Department of Commerce (International Trade Administration) determines whether dumping or subsidization occurred and calculates the margin or subsidy rate. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) determines whether the dumped or subsidized imports materially injure — or threaten to injure — a U.S. industry. An order issues, and duties attach, only when both findings are affirmative. A negative injury finding by the ITC ends the case even if Commerce found large margins.
They often apply to the same goods — and they stack
Because dumping and subsidization frequently occur together, Commerce regularly runs companion AD and CVD investigations on the same product from the same country. When both result in orders, an importer faces both duties on the same entry. The combined cash-deposit exposure is the sum of the AD rate and the CVD rate — and that total sits on top of the normal tariff.
That stacking is easy to under-count. Seeing a 5% AD rate and a 5% CVD rate as two separate line items understates the real exposure: the entry carries roughly 10% in combined AD/CVD cash deposits before the regular tariff. (ImportSentry's Exposure Screener combines an AD order and its companion CVD order on the same goods into a single cash-deposit figure for exactly this reason.)
What this means for importers
- Check for both. Finding an AD order does not mean there is no CVD order — and vice versa. The companion case is common.
- Read the case prefix. A- and C- numbers tell you instantly which remedy you're looking at; adjacent numbers usually signal a companion pair.
- The exporter still governs the rate. Both AD and CVD rates vary by supplier; the named-exporter rate and the all-others rate can differ sharply. (See What is an AD/CVD cash-deposit rate?.)
Sources
- 19 U.S.C. 1673 — Antidumping duties. Legal Information Institute.
- 19 U.S.C. 1671 — Countervailing duties. Legal Information Institute.
- U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration — Antidumping and Countervailing Duties.
- U.S. International Trade Commission — Import Injury Investigations.
- AD/CVD orders and rates are published in the Federal Register.