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VIDEO: Fiat revamps US culture with Italian ad

Italian car company Fiat has launched a new TV advert which plays on Italian and US stereotypes alike, ranging from over-sized coffee to passion and style.

VIDEO: Fiat revamps US culture with Italian ad
The Italians make sure their US hosts drink 'real' coffee. Screenshot: Fiat/funnyordie.com

The company's latest advert, one of many for Fiat's US campaign, features a US couple who are given an Italian family along with their Fiat purchase.

The Italian trio fight over a wayward daughter’s relationship, weddings, suits and shoes, while their puzzled hosts erroneously offer them oversized takeaway coffee.

Thankfully the Italians are soon served real coffee, advising on dinner and celebrating goals in the street with their new friends.

One week later and the Italians’ work is done; the Americans have been transformed into stylish, talkative types who start their day with a shot of coffee.

“At first we thought you were boring, but now you’re not so boring, so we’ve moved on,” reads a note left by the family.

But the handsome, suited family member also leaves the couple bickering after declaring his desire to take the American woman to a deserted beach. “Basta!” declares her other half.

The ‘Backseat Italians’ advert follows the 2012 Fiat ‘Italian Invasion’, which plays out how exciting life could have been for the US if the Italians – rather than the British – had invaded the country.

Earlier this year the car company released an advert which played on the historical wave of Italian immigrants, declaring “the next wave of Italians has come to America, and they’ve come to party!”

Watch the ‘Backseat Italians’ video:  

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FARMING

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules

A US decision to slap steep import duties on Spanish olives over claims they benefited from subsidies constituted a violation of international trade rules, the World Trade Organisation ruled Friday.

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules
Farmers had just begun harvesting olives in southern Spain when former US President Donald Trump soured the mood with the tariffs' announcement. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration slapped extra tariffs on Spain’s iconic agricultural export in 2018, considering their olives were subsidised and being dumped on the US market at prices below their real value.

The combined rates of the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties go as high as 44 percent.

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the 27 EU states, said the move was unacceptable and turned to the WTO, where a panel of experts was appointed to examine the case.

In Friday’s ruling, the WTO panel agreed with the EU’s argument that the anti-subsidy duties were illegal.

But it did not support its stance that the US anti-dumping duties violated international trade rules.

The panel said it “recommended that the United States bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis hailed the ruling, pointing out that the US duties “severely hit Spanish olive producers.”

Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid, called by the olive sector
Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid called by the olive sector to denounce low prices of olive oil and the 25 percent tariff that Spanish olives and olive oil faced in the United States. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
 

“We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions,” he said.

The European Commission charges that Spain’s exports of ripe olives to the United States, which previously raked in €67 million ($75.6 million) annually, have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since the duties were imposed.

The office of the US Trade Representative in Washington did not immediately comment on the ruling.

According to WTO rules, the parties have 60 days to file for an appeal.

If the United States does file an appeal though, it would basically amount to a veto of the ruling.

That is because the WTO Appellate Body — also known as the supreme court of world trade — stopped functioning in late 2019 after Washington blocked the appointment of new judges.

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