my two bits
i think it is a toss up on the automatics. i have access to two remington 1100's that have literally shot hundreds of thousands of rounds. they have 3 digit serial numbers and were presented to two , then, well known skeet shooters who shot the fool out of them, and still do. both still have the original rubber gas rings. i know of another 1100 that is in south texas that has shot , according to its owner , about 25000 duck loads, both steel and lead. it wore out. the pin which the magazine latch pivots had it's head wear off, remington said it was easier to just buy another gun.
i have a beretta 303 which has about 250,000 shells through it. knock on wood, it has never malfunctioned. it has never been repaired. the gas jets were enlarged so it would handle target loads better( just as 110 ports are sometimes plugged to help the cycling with heavy loads). enlarged 1/64" . my two man team partner has a AL series beretta, has never once been cleaned in 35 years, he hunts all over the country with it, it never misses a beat. this guy hunts quial in texas and kansas, pheasant in texas, kansas, nebraska, south dakota, ducks and geese from canada to the gulf, on the east coast, whereever with whatever ammo he can get. he goes to mexico and argentina every year. to me this gives the edge to italy on the autos.
on the newer o/u i think italy is the leader. the kolar gun is just a perazzi with coil springs in it's trigger and the barrels lowered in the receiver a little. rags has told me this himself, he considers the perazzi the gun to beat, so they just tried to refine it. when the 680 series of beretta came out, i think they were better quality controlled than perazzi, but of course, now they own perazzi and perazzi is a better gun than it once was. the regulators of the beretta barrels are what i think made the biggest difference. beretta barrels typically shoot closer to the same spot than perazzi. makes them a lot easier to shoot.
kreighoff? pretty good shotguns, made very popular by the shooters shooting them and hal making them easier for many people to acquire. i don't think they point as well, but, that's my opinion.
i vote that italy has the auto and o/u market in the mid to lower end market. i think the citori and red label rule below the italian o/u's, but are certainly not of the same
quality. america rules the pump gun market, and the sxs without getting into comparing apples and oranges, you know fabbri and rizzini to say charles daly and winchester.