Once upon a time, in 1914, in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island — where my Dad’s side of the family is from — there was a multi-day civil uprising related in part to the increasing price of pasta. I realize I am inviting all kinds of bad ethnic jokes by telling you all about this, but it was a thing that happened. They were called the Macaroni Riots.
We may very well see some of our own soon enough, because Italy’s biggest pasta exporters say they plan to stop selling in the United States starting next year. Why? Because last month, the US Commerce Department decided that they were charging too little for their pasta and “undercutting” the market for macaroni made in the states, and hit them with a 92 percent “anti-dumping” duty. That’s on top of the 15 percent tariff on all goods from the European Union — 107 percent in total.
The additional costs could drive up the price of imported Italian pasta to $7.99 a bag, which I think we can all agree is ridiculous for shelf-stable pasta. The US is the largest consumer of Italian-made pasta, but most people are not going to pay that — so there would basically be no point in exporting.
Newsweek reports that the 13 companies that will be affected by these increased taxes are:
La Molisana
Pasta Garofalo
Rummo
Agritalia
Aldino
Antiche Tradizioni Di Gragnano
Barilla (noting U.S.-produced Barilla will be less affected)
Gruppo Milo
Pastificio Artigiano Cav. Giuseppe Cocco
Pastificio Chiavenna
Pastificio Liguori
Pastificio Sgambaro
Pastificio Tamma
Now, you may be thinking, “Oh, well, I don’t really buy most of those brands, anyway! I am safe!” But the United States does not actually make enough pasta for everyone, so this will very likely lead to a pasta shortage starting in the first few months of 2026 — a horrific tragedy, the likes of which we have never seen before in this country.
The US Commerce Department began its “investigation” into this supposed price dumping back in August after two US companies, Winland Foods and 8th Avenue Food & Provisions (the latter of which doesn’t even sell pasta anymore), complained that they couldn’t compete with Italian pasta brands.
Via The Daily Beast:
“This isn’t about dumping—it’s an excuse to block imports,” said Cosimo Rummo, CEO of Rummo Pasta, another company caught in the crossfire.
Officials in Rome agree. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has assembled a diplomatic task force to push back on the decision, while EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic blasted the 107 percent combined tariffs as “clearly unacceptable.”
U.S. officials deny politics played a role, insisting the rates are the result of a “technical review.” An official noted, as evidence, that the Trump administration has friendly relations with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
This is true. After all, they’re both fascists. However, last month, when Trump visited Italy, multiple outlets reported that she appeared to be visibly skeeved out by him after he repeatedly called her a “beautiful young woman” and then shook her hand for an awkwardly long amount of time. I would not put it past the man to be angry enough about that to push for something like this. He’s petty AF.
“Together with the Italian ambassador to the United States, Marco Peronaci, we are carefully following the alleged anti-dumping action, which would trigger a hyper-protectionist mechanism towards our pasta producers for which we see neither the need nor any justification,” Francesco Lollobrigida, Italy’s Minister of Agriculture and, yes, the grandnephew of actress Gina Lollobrigida (please, like I wasn’t going to check on that immediately), told Il Sole 24 Ore.
Now, there’s already been an ongoing issue with tariffs increasing the price of “the good” olive oil and discouraging many exporters — it was the subject of an hourlong discussion at my cousin’s kids’ birthday party this summer, during which I just repeatedly quoted Peep Show without anyone picking up on that.
People were very upset. We take food very seriously! Please to recall that the biggest conspiracy of the last decade started because people did not believe it was humanly possible for two Italian-American guys to talk about pizza that much without it actually being about a Satanic pedophile ring.
So between that and a pasta shortage, there are going to be a whole lot of angry Italian-Americans out there, not to mention all of the other people who like good food. Let’s be real, there are a lot of people out there who are perfectly content to ignore politics and tariffs and what have you until it directly affects them, and they are either forced to eat substandard pasta or go without it altogether.
Che peccato!
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Scotland has been undercutting the US haggis industry for years and no one’s complained.
Making it is actually quite easy, though time-consuming and messy.