OTTAWA – The campaign by Canada’s pasta makers for government protection from dumped and subsidized European pasta has grown more urgent.
This summer, the U.S. government did what the Canadian International Trade Tribunal refused to do last May.
It concluded imports of subsidized Italian pasta were hurting the U.S. industry and slapped import duties of close to 50 percent on future imports.
Last week, Canada’s producers warned that the American duty wall could send a new flood of European pasta into the Canadian market.
Read Also
Russian wheat exports start to pick up the pace
Russia has had a slow start for its 2025-26 wheat export program, but the pace is starting to pick up and that is a bearish factor for prices.
It would cause “a significant increase in the financial injury to Canadian manufacturers,” said Don Jarvis, executive director of the Canadian Pasta Manufacturers Association.
At a time when pasta plants are facing record-level durum prices, they cannot increase the price of their product because it will mean loss of domestic market share to imports, he said.
Ruling appealed
In Federal Court, the pasta manufacturers are appealing the CITT ruling that there is no injury caused by dumped imports.
On July 31, they will appear in court to ask that provisional duties on Italian imports be collected by Revenue Canada until the appeal is decided.
The industry’s attempt to win permanent protection from dumped or subsidized pasta from the European Union has been a complex affair.
During CITT hearings, manufacturers presented evidence that market share held by EU imports had more than doubled to 20 percent.
They said this had driven prices down and cost the industry $42 million in “lost profits” over the past three years.
Revenue Canada already had concluded the imports were subsidized and dumped and were harming the Canadian industry. It imposed a temporary duty protection.
However, when the case went before the CITT to confirm the duty and to make it permanent, members of the tribunal said they could not conclude the damage to the Canadian industry was the result of dumping and subsidies.
Manufacturers pronounced themselves “completely shocked” and launched their appeal.
With imports already up 25 percent over last year’s level and durum prices still high, they are predicting heavy financial losses in 1996 unless the duty protection is restored.
