‘I’m now a one-issue voter’: US shoppers fear Italian pasta tariff will cause shortage

The Guardian interviewed Scott Laing for a story about a potential 107% tariff on Italian pasta imports that could cause companies to withdraw from U.S. market — and for U.S. producers to raise their prices. Laing said that while most pasta sold in the U.S. is already domestically produced, they may use the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices. “News stories are going around about the tariffs that are already starting to train consumers to think, ‘oh, pasta prices are going up,’ without realizing that the majority of their pasta isn’t actually an Italian import,” Laing said. “So the stores can raise their prices just a little bit, making this off-brand pasta box $1 more, even though there is no tariff on it.”