PHILADELPHIA: Steel: 50 percent. Copper: 50 percent. Cars: up to 25 percent. But an even bigger Trump-era levy looms: 107 percent on Italian pasta.
Mamma mia.
It started with the US Commerce Department launching what it says was a routine antidumping review, based on allegations Italian pasta makers sold product into the US at below-market prices and undercut local competitors. That has led to a threat of 92 percent duties, which would come on top of the 15 percent tariff President Donald Trump’s administration imposed on European exports generally.
The news sent shockwaves through Italy, where 13 producers would be subject to the whopping one-two punch. They say sales in their second biggest export market would shrivel if prices to American consumers more than double. And while the measure would hardly prompt pasta shortages, it still has perplexed importers like Sal Auriemma, whose shop in Philadelphia’s Italian market, Claudio Specialty Food, has been operating for over 60 years.
“Pasta is a pretty small sector to pick on. I mean, there’s a lot bigger things to pick on,” said Auriemma, pointing to luxury items as an alternative.
