Material Injury is the statutory injury standard the USITC applies in antidumping and countervailing duty cases. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1677(7), material injury is harm to a domestic industry that is "not inconsequential, immaterial, or unimportant." The bar is deliberately lower than the "serious injury" standard used in Section 201 safeguards cases.
The USITC analyzes three primary factors:
- Volume of imports — Significant increase in absolute or relative terms
- Price effects — Significant price underselling compared to the domestic like product, or significant price depression or suppression
- Impact on the domestic industry — Effects on output, sales, market share, profits, productivity, capacity utilization, employment, wages, growth, ability to raise capital, investment, and R&D
The USITC also considers cumulation — combining the impact of imports from multiple countries subject to investigation if those imports compete with each other and with the domestic product. Cumulation often tips otherwise close cases toward affirmative findings.
Material injury determinations are made by a vote of the six commissioners. A tie vote is treated as affirmative under 19 U.S.C. § 1677(11). Negative determinations terminate the investigation; affirmative determinations support the imposition of duties (together with an affirmative Commerce Department determination of dumping or subsidization).
Related concepts include threat of material injury (likely injury in the reasonably foreseeable future) and material retardation of the establishment of an industry (used when a domestic industry is still in formation).