Turkish pasta being ‘ dumped’ in Canada

But Saskatchewan pasta- maker calls volumes ‘ less than tiny’

A “pasta war” is heating up as more than 10 millions of pounds of Turkish pasta are allegedly being “dumped” in Canada, although one Saskatchewan- based pasta manufacturer says the allegations are a tempest in a teapot.

The Canadian Pasta Manufacturers Association ( CPMA) says it has found “substantial evidence” that Turkish pasta is being dumped in Canada — a predatory trade practice in which manufacturers sell excess, often governmentsubsidized, goods into a foreign market at or below cost.

“Canada is becoming the North American dumping ground for cheap Turkish pasta,” said Don Jarvis, executive director of CPMA, the national trade association representing Canadian pasta manufacturers.

“We are extremely concerned about the impacts that subsidized and dumped pasta will have on local Canadian businesses.”

According to Statistics Canada, more than five million kilograms of uncooked pasta were imported into Canada from Turkey between January and November 2015, almost tripling the total quantity imported for all of 2014. The same report also shows a dramatic price disparity with other imports — 50 per cent less than Italian pasta and 40 per cent less than U. S. pasta imports.

Unless importers take “immediate action to stop the importation of subsidized and dumped pasta into the Canadian market,” CPMA says it will initiate a complaint with the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.

Under international trade agreements, Canada can impose anti- dumping and countervailing measures to protect Canadian industries against injurious dumping and subsidization and unfairly trading those goods, the association said.

But one Saskatchewan- based pasta manufacturer and pulsecrop processor called CPMA’s allegation of dumping “ridiculous.”

“I see the reference to five million kilograms” of dumped pasta in CPMA’s news release, said Murad Al- Katib, president and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients of Regina. “That’s less than tiny.”

“Canadian manufacturers are basically saying they’re having trouble competing,’’ Al- Katib said, noting the association launched a similar action in 1996 against Italian pasta and lost.

Turkey is a major market for Canadian agri- products, with durum exports growing quickly, AlKatib said, adding that Turkey’s exports of 5,000 tonnes of pasta to Canada are worth less than $ 5 million while Saskatchewan exports 150,000 tonnes of durum to Turkey, worth about $ 500 million.

“Nearly $ 500 million of trade with Turkey puts a huge Saskatchewan benefit to a two- way trade relationship.”

Al- Katib’s company has close ties to Turkey. In 2009, AGT acquired the Arbel Group, owner of the Arbella Pasta brand, the third- largest selling domestic brand of pasta in Turkey, and the largest bulgur and durum wheat and semolina milling facilities in Turkey.

Western Canadian Wheat Growers would like to see a “CanadaTurkey free trade deal,’’ president Levi Wood said.

“We should be working together to remove tariffs on Canadian crops and other goods and services in both countries, not increase them.”

Nearly $ 500 million of trade with Turkey puts a huge Saskatchewan benefit to a two- way trade relationship.