Petitioning and Settling Trade Cases – Where Antitrust and Trade Principles Avoid Collision

U.S. antitrust and trade laws are meant to protect competition, but at times seem to move in different directions.  While trade laws can push competitors together to petition or respond to antidumping or other alleged injury from import competition, antitrust laws seek to prevent cooperation between competitors that has anticompetitive effects or harms consumers.  Concerns about antitrust exposure may lead many companies to suffer in silence, not wishing to exchange the problem of import compe