Could Italian Pasta Disappear in the U.S.?

0:00Today on State of the World, could Italian pasta disappear in the US?

0:08You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Thursday, December 4th. I'm Greg Dixon. It is possible that in the new year, Italian pasta could either vanish from supermarket shelves in the U.S. or else the price could double. The Commerce Department says it will slap heavy duties on the import of over a dozen Italian pasta brands. but negotiations are ongoing. From Rome, NPR's Ruth Sherlock tells us why this is happening and what it could mean for both Italian producers and U.S. consumers. Since the 1800s, Italian pasta, fusilli spaghetti rigatoni, has been shipped across the Atlantic to be enjoyed by Americans.

0:54It's not just pasta, says one advert for the Italian La Molisana pasta brand.

1:05It's an all-Italian declaration of love. Under the Trump administration, though, this declaration is being well and truly spurned. And the fight for Italian pasta is now national news. Here's NBC's Today. Americans could soon be saying arrivederci to their favorite Italian pastas. Imports from 13 Italian pasta brands, including favorites like Barilla and Rumo, are staring down a 107 % tariff. This whopping extra import cost is a combination of tariffs the White House placed on all goods coming from the European Union and a penalty of almost 92 % imposed by the US Department of Commerce on pasta brands accused of dumping practices.

1:47This is when a company sells goods abroad at a cheaper price than in its domestic market. American competitor pasta producers have long accused Italian pasta brands of doing this, triggering regular investigations by the Department of Commerce. But this time, the penalty is huge and Italian pasta companies and economic experts don't understand why. Our data analysis of Italian pasta trade shows no evidence of pasta dumping behaviour. Chiara Donegani is a senior teaching fellow in economics at Aston University in the United Kingdom. She says Italian pasta trades on the idea of heritage and quality and so sells at much higher prices than American pasta.

2:33Pasta is an iconic product, the renowned, well-known element of the Mediterranean diet. This is not dumping, this is premium dining, we would say. The US Department of Commerce says it applied the penalty after two Italian pasta companies it contacted for review, Garofalo and La Monisana, didn't provide the full requested data and the response included things like untranslated Italian words. The Commerce Department then decided to hit nearly a dozen other Italian pasta companies with the same punitive measures. Why is it doing this? The Department of Commerce didn't respond to NPR's request for comment.

3:14Donaghani thinks. Our interpretation is that the short answer is politics and not economics. President Trump has been using tariffs as an economic weapon for many issues, from trying to bring manufacturing to the United States to applying political pressure on other countries. In Italy, the Foreign Ministry is now directly involved in the Italian pastor affair and a special task force has been set up to handle it. The situation is the case of a treaty in course.

4:09but they could find markets elsewhere. Who really loses out is the American consumer. The cost of their Italian pasta would skyrocket, or possibly, Bazzana says, they simply wouldn't be able to find it in shops anymore. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome.

4:35That's the State of the World from NPR. Before we go, in this week of Giving Tuesday, I want to send appreciation to those of you who have already supported NPR this year. Thank you. If you haven't supported us yet, please consider doing it now by signing up for NPR+. It's a simple recurring donation that gets you perks to NPR's podcasts. You can join at plus.npr.org. Thank you for your support, and thanks for listening.