When the federal International Trade Commission takes up an anti-dumping complaint, the law curiously allows, indeed requires, it to disregard the interests of businesses that purchase the commodity involved. A dispute over magnesium imports also illustrates how different parts of the government can act at jarring cross purposes with each other: even as one branch of the federal government was penalizing Chinese magnesium exports, another was launching a complaint against China for undue reluctance to export (among other materials) magnesium. [Daniel Ikenson, Cato at Liberty]
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Government agencies working at cross-purposes is an inevitable consequence of massive, statist government. As government ever larger, acquires ever more power, and spawns ever more agencies and departments, it becomes impossible for anyone in government to comprehend it all or to co-ordinate any of it. So the exercise of government power simultaneously gets applied to ever more issues while at the same time responsibility for its use becomes ever more fragmented. Government agencies working at cross purposes or fighting each other is the inevitable outcome.