‘Heed the Great Spaghetti Spat’

The Times editorial (Nov. 8), “Heed the Great Spaghetti Spat,” is unfair to American pasta manufacturers. The editorial points out that the tariffs recently placed on Italian imported pasta “will please only the U.S. pasta producers.”

It was not pointed out that the Italian pasta manufacturers buy our U.S. durum wheat. They ship it to Italy process it into pasta and then ship it back to the United States and still undersell the American manufacturer by 2 cents a pound.

The reason that they are able to do this is that the Italian government subsidizes the Italian manufacturer to the tune of 20 cents a pound. When times are good American manufacturers net a penny a pound on pasta. If the Italian government is going to pay these enormous subsidies is it unfair that the “United States has slapped an enormous tariff on Italian pasta”?

ROBERT WILLIAM

Los Angeles

William is president of the Globe A-1 Macaroni Co.