ITALY/USA : RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES ARE UNDER STRAIN OVER A SERIES OF TRADE DISPUTES OVER PASTA AND FASHION
Record ID:
337863
ITALY/USA : RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES ARE UNDER STRAIN OVER A SERIES OF TRADE DISPUTES OVER PASTA AND FASHION
- Title: ITALY/USA : RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES ARE UNDER STRAIN OVER A SERIES OF TRADE DISPUTES OVER PASTA AND FASHION
- Date: 21st October 1995
- Summary: ROME, ITALY/ NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON D.C. UNITED STATES (RECENT) ROME, ITALY 1. PASTA CHEFS 2. GOURMANDS NEW YORK, UNITED STATES 3. PASTA ON ASSOCIATED SUPERMARKET SHELVES 4. ASSOCIATED SUPERMARKET MANAGER ARTIE ROSENBLATT SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) ROME, ITALY 5. PASTA-MAKING PROCESS 6. LUIGI MENCONI, HEAD OF UNION OF ITALIAN PASTA MAKERS, SPEAKING AS NOTED (ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) 7. PASTA-MAKING PROCESS 8. PASTA ON SUPERMARKET SHELVES NEW YORK, UNITED STATES 9. PASTA ON SUPERMARKET SHELVES ROME, ITALY 10. REUTERS TELEVISION'S ED BRUNETTI SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES 11. JULIA KINNAIRD, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL PASTA ASSOCIATION, SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) NEW YORK, UNITED STATES 12. SAN DOMENICO RESTAURANT KITCHEN 13. RESTAURANT OWNER TONY MAY SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) 14. PASTA COOKING ROME, ITALY 15. LUIGI MENCONI, HEAD OF UNION OF ITALIAN PASTA MAKERS, SPEAKING AS NOTED (ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION) NEW YORK, UNITED STATES 16. ARMANI SHOP 17. FASHION MODELS 18. RESTAURANT KITCHEN 19. MAY SPEAKING AS NOTED (ENGLISH) ROME, ITALY 20. ITALIANS EATING PASTA Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 5th November 1995 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY / WASHINGTON, D.C., / NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA9FP4GN0RXMAUNI3EOJ5XECUSD
- Story Text: - INTRO: Relations between Italy and the United States are coming under strain over a series of trade disputes. The American action provoking the most heated passions in Italy, is the decision to impose a 50 per cent import duty on some types of Italian Pasta. Reuters' Ed Brunetti reports from Rome.
If one item symbolises Italy, It's pasta. Italians insist they invented it. They also insist they make it better than anybody else. These Roman gourmets can't get enough of the real thing. And neither can their American counterparts, who are prepared to pay a big premium for imported brands such as 'de Checco'.
In the past five years Italian pasta exports to the United States have soared by 65 per cent.
"Regardless of price, they will buy 'de Checco'. It's the most popular pasta item in the store," says Associated Supermarket manager Artie Rosenblatt.
But although Italian producers hold seven per cent of the American market, the US government has just imposed import tariffs on Italian pasta of up to 50 per cent.
Italy's pasta makers are pushing the government to take the matter to international arbitration.
Luigi Menconi, Head of the Union of Italian Pasta Manufacturers: "American pasta makers want their own exclusive hunting reserve.
They have cooked up a case in their own home: we'll see how it goes at the World Trade Organisation." The US manufacturers have successfully argued to US trade officials that Italians are dumping pasta at unfairly low prices. The claim is brushed off by the Italians.
Barilla, one of Italy's biggest-selling pasta brands, says a packet of its pasta costs about 65 cents in Italy. They same packet in the US is sold for more than one dollar.
Here in Rome, they say Americans are afraid of competition: That American consumers will increasingly buy Italian as they become more demanding about pasta quality.
Julia Kinnaird, president of America's National Pasta Association: "U.S. pasta is every bit as good, if not better, than Italian imports. There have been several independent consumer taste tests over the the last couple of years where in all cases US pasta has won over imports. Further, the US pasta manufacturers use the same raw materials, use the same manufacturing processes." The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; or in this case, in the plates of Manhattan's taste-setting trendy Italian eateries.
Here in Little Italy, no self-respecting restauranter would serve up anything but authentic Italian pasta.
Tony May, owner of Manhattan's San Domenico restaurant, says: "American producers no way can come close to producing a quality pasta as you can get from Italy. Their skill, understanding how it is cooked, the raw materials etc. can't be matched." Disputes like that over pasta are exposing underlying conflicts of interest which are threatening to boil over into a heated transatlantic trade war.
Menconi: "If seven per cent of the pasta market provokes antidumping actions, then the European manufacturers of other goods should fear what is happening to us." Overall, trade relations between Italy and the US are sinking to new lows. The US has recently stopped Italian made scarves and ties carrying the coveted Made in Italy tag if they use Asian silk. And Italy has even threatened to blacklist American firms if the US government imposes unilateral sanctions on Italian companies.
Geo-politics aside, Italian fashion houses and pasta makers can rely on their customers' passionate love of their produce. Tony May: "No matter how expensive they make imports, we are only going to buy Italian pasta." On its part the Italian government would prefer its most important ally would stop unilaterally punishing it aver its export successes.
They would like the whole issue resolved, in the diplomatic style of the modern Italy: quietly and preferably behind closed doors; perhaps over a good plate of pasta(
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None