OTTAWA (Staff) – The Canadian Wheat Board has bowed to demands from Canada’s pasta makers by announcing restrictions on imports of European pasta.
Last week, the board announced it will allow only retailers to import European pasta packages which weigh no more than 2.268 kilograms.
Wholesalers and bulk imports will not be allowed.
The restriction lasts until July 31 and then will be converted to a border duty of 19 cents per kilogram on all imports.
“We consider this an interim step toward addressing the problem of subsidized, dumped Italian pasta,” said Don Jarvis, an Ottawa lobbyist who represented Canada’s five pasta-makers.
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He said that within several months, the domestic pasta-makers plan to launch a case with Revenue Canada alleging that all imports should be subject to anti-dumping duties.
Dumping charged
“It is the industry’s view that all pasta imported from Europe is subsidized and dumped and that this has injured the industry,” he said. “We will ask for relief.”
Last year, more than 17.6 million kilograms of pasta came in from Europe, capturing close to 15 percent of the domestic market.
For some time, the board has had the power to restrict imports but had not been closely applying it.
Jarvis said the board decided to act now because the European Union has reverted to applying restitutions, effectively export subsidies, to pasta.
Canadian manufacturers have complained that they are often forced to compete with lower-priced imported pasta that is made in Italy with Canadian durum wheat.
