US super tariffs on pasta: EU ready to act

The EU is also coming down hard on the 107% US super tariffs against Italian pasta. 'The European Commission, in close coordination with the Italian government, is cooperating with the United States in this investigation and will intervene if necessary,' said its spokesman, Olof Gill, yesterday. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, therefore, the dossier has also ended up on the table in Brussels, even though the 107% measure is the result of an ad hoc anti-dumping investigation on the Italian pasta sector and, therefore, outside the scope of the EU-US negotiations on trade tariffs.

The super tariffs, if confirmed, would come into force on 1 January 2026. In detail, it would be an anti-dumping tariff of 91.74%, which would be added to the 15% tariffs announced last summer by US President Trump. The extra penalty, however, would only affect the 13 Italian pasta brands subject to the latest investigation by the US Department of Commerce. In the memorandum issued on 28 August, in fact, the US administration establishes a 'dumping margin' against the Garofalo and La Molisana brands, which were subject to direct investigation, plus another 11 brands that asked to participate in the annual administrative review. The US Department of Commerce has been investigating pasta imports from Italy and Turkey since 1996. Periodically, at the prompting of producers - both American and Italian - it initiates audits on sales prices: only this last time the outcome proved particularly onerous.

The Farnesina has been following the proceedings since the beginning of September. The 13 companies involved are finalising the transmission of their written pleadings to the Department of Commerce: the latter, by the end of the year, will have to announce the final outcome of the investigation and confirm, or reformulate, the tariffs. From the Barilla group, one of the 13 brands involved because, in addition to producing in the US, it exports products from Italy, they say that "the decision penalises us, along with the entire sector. This is why we are considering what steps to take, including filing a defence brief'. The tariffs, recalls Cosimo Rummo, president and CEO of the pasta factory of the same name - also included in the list of 13 - will take effect on 1 January, but 'because the dumping is retroactive, you will also have to pay for the previous 12 months. Our US lawyers have already filed an appeal: it is madness to have extended the fine of two companies (La Molisana and Garofalo) also to us, who sell 454 grams in the US for the equivalent of 4.5 euros. They should come and check'. For Claudio Costantini, director of the Sgambaro pasta factory, another producer involved, if the tariffs were confirmed, 'we would have a collapse. By now, all the wheat purchases have already been made, so we would have significant volumes of pasta to put on the Italian and European markets, creating incredible turbulence'. .

The repercussions on Italy of the super tariffs would not only concern an excess of product that would be dumped on the market. At risk is in fact the entire supply chain, including the countryside, where 60% of the durum wheat needed to produce our pasta is cultivated every year. "The repercussions would affect the entire supply chain and the sector is already in difficulty," recalled the president of Confagricoltura Lombardia, Antonio Boselli, yesterday. "Lombardy alone produces more than 10 thousand hectares of durum wheat, which is also used to produce pasta. On the super tariffs, Confagricoltura urges the Italian government to take a strong stance: 'Such a decision,' argues the association's president, Massimiliano Giansanti, 'would have repercussions on the entire wheat-pasta supply chain, to the detriment of companies, workers and all consumers. The Italian agri-food chain has always acted with fairness on international markets'.

In addition to the pressure of businesses and farmers on the government, there is also pressure from the opposition, starting with the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, who sees in this move by the US administration an attempt to encourage the relocation of production by Italian companies to the United States: "The Meloni government's surrender to the tariffs applied by the Trump administration is damaging our country's production system," said Schlein.