Canada’s pasta manufacturing companies have their day in court this week as they continue the fight to win protection from dumped imports of Italian pasta.
There is evidence that subsidized imports continue to pour into Canada to claim a larger share of the domestic market. Domestic pasta companies complain those imports cost them millions of dollars in lost sales and lower prices.
“The problem is still with us,” Don Jarvis of the Canadian Pasta Manufacturers Association said last week. “In fact, it is getting worse.”
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By the end of October, imports from Italy were up more than 21 percent from last year’s level, he said. More than 17.3 million kilograms had been imported, with Italy displacing the United States as the main source of imports.
Two subsidies
The Italian product receives both domestic and export subsidies from the European Community.
Last year, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal agreed the Italian product is subsidized and dumped into Canada.
However, the tribunal concluded after hearings that there is no evidence of significant damage to the Canadian industry and therefore, no reason to grant pasta manufacturers the protection they requested. It rejected arguments that there is a direct link between declining domestic industry revenues and the subsidized imports.
The tribunal ordered that anti-dumping duties already in place be lifted.
On Jan. 21, lawyers for the pasta manufacturers were to be in the Federal Court of Canada asking that the decision be overturned. They have the support of the Canadian Wheat Board.
The manufacturers argue the tribunal’s conclusions that there is no “material injury” to the domestic industry, despite the competition of subsidized product, is “patently unreasonable.”
