US slashes proposed tariffs on Italian pasta

The U.S. Commerce Department had previously said it would slap antidumping duties of 92% on Italy’s main pasta exporters as soon as January—a measure that Italian pasta makers said would force them to pull out of the U.S. market. Italy’s government and the affected companies have been lobbying the Trump administration for weeks to revise the decision.

The Commerce Department told the companies late on Wednesday that it would sharply reduce the antidumping measures, according to an industry representative and Italy’s foreign ministry. The two biggest pasta exporters to the U.S., La Molisana and Garofalo, will now face duties of 2.3% and 13.9%, respectively. Eleven other Italian pasta makers will face a 9.1% tariff.

“This is a great step forward. In Italy, we are finally working as a team," said Cosimo Rummo, chief executive of Rummo Pasta, one of the affected companies.

In addition, the pasta companies are subject to the U.S.’s 15% tariff on imports from the European Union imposed this year by the Trump administration.

The antidumping review is continuing, and the department’s final report is due by March 11.

The department’s earlier decision in September shocked the Italian pasta industry, which has annual sales of around $770 million to the U.S. Defending pasta exports became a matter of national pride for the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which has sought to position itself as one of the Trump administration’s closest allies in Europe.

Some Italian officials and pasta executives suspected the protectionist policies of the White House might have influenced the severity of the preliminary decision. U.S. officials denied that, saying the proposed antidumping duties were set according to purely technical criteria.

The Commerce Department on Thursday said that its latest analysis “indicates that Italian pasta makers have addressed many of Commerce’s concerns raised in the preliminary determination, and reflects Commerce’s commitment to a fair, transparent process."

The Commerce Department has for years carried out regular antidumping probes of Italian pasta makers suspected of underpricing their products, and it has frequently found one or more companies guilty of pricing irregularities. But the penalties imposed were usually relatively small.

This year, for the first time, companies representing the bulk of Italian pasta exports to the U.S. faced the prospect of crippling penalties.

The department’s review of Italian pasta makers has been comparing the cost of durum-wheat pasta on sale in the U.S. and Italy, while taking into account additional costs such as transportation. The review has focused on La Molisana and Garofalo.

The department initially said it was punishing Italian pasta companies because they were being uncooperative with its investigation, citing problems that ranged from missing information to untranslated Italian words in the companies’ submissions.

Since then, Italian authorities and pasta makers have been scrambling to show they are cooperating.

“The revision of the duties is an indication that U.S. authorities recognize that our companies genuinely wanted to cooperate," the Italian foreign ministry said on Thursday, adding that it would continue to assist pasta companies until the final assessment is released.

Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com