K A S H R U T . C O M_©

November 10, 2025 from the Wall Stree Journal:

"Your favorite Italian-origin fusilli and macaroni are poised to disappear from U.S. supermarket shelves.

"Italy’s biggest pasta exporters say import and antidumping duties totaling 107% on their pasta brands will make doing business in America too costly and are preparing to pull out of U.S. stores as soon as January. The combined tariffs are among the steepest faced by any product targeted by the Trump administration.

"The U.S. Commerce Department has announced a 92% antidumping duty on pasta made in Italy by La Molisana and 12 other companies, which import the bulk of pasta from Italy to the U.S. That is on top of the Trump administration’s 15% tariff on imports from the European Union.

"The Commerce Department acted after a long-running probe into pricing practices for the product that goes into everything from spaghetti Bolognese to mac and cheese. The severity of the decision has stunned one of Italy’s most iconic industries and has escalated into a diplomatic dispute between Washington and Rome, which is determined to combat the tariff.

"Antidumping probes into Italian pasta makers are nothing new. The Commerce Department has been inspecting them since the mid-1990s, when it found that many importers were flooding the U.S. with pasta priced below normal market prices in a bid to undercut their U.S. competitors.

"American pasta makers have regularly filed antidumping complaints against Italian imports since then. Reviews by the Commerce Department have often found one or more Italian companies guilty of underpricing their pasta.

"But the penalties were usually small. Italian makers shrugged and saw it as part of the cost of doing business in the U.S.

"This is the first time that so many of them face potentially trade-killing tariffs.

"The latest government review was triggered, as in the past, by a complaint from U.S. companies: 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, which owns Ronzoni pasta, and Winland Foods, which is behind brands including Mueller’s and Prince.

"People with knowledge of the case also say the Commerce Department assigned new analysts to scrutinize the filings who had little understanding of Italian accounting practices, leading the agency to view the companies as noncooperative. The Trump administration didn’t respond to questions about the analysts on the case."

Ed. note: Italian pasta is yoshon.