The Italian government has decided to defend the national productions most exposed to the new American tariff moves. Palazzo Chigi has a two -track strategy in mind: to obtain a strong mandate from Brussels to keep out of agri -food duties and steel and, at the same time, prepare internal measures to buffer the effects on the most vulnerable companies.
There is talk of compensatory funds, incentives for exports to alternative markets and targeted economic diplomacy actions.
Duties, Urso glimpses negotiation spaces
The government’s strategy starts from negotiation. The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, in an interview with Corriere della Sera He explained that there are spaces for maneuver in different sectors:
For wines and some food products, as well as for steel and aluminum.
For him, the game is not secondary, but the real victory has so far been avoiding a frontal clash with Washington, who would have overwhelmed economies on both sides.
Tajani focuses on the ECB
The government must move in agreement with the EU. On the sidelines of the Rimini Meeting, the deputy premier and foreign minister Antonio Tajani explained that the issue of duties is only a piece of a wider mosaic.
For him the real knot, even before the products, is the relationship between euros and dollar, which continues to penalize Italian companies. He said:
Italian companies must be supported at a complicated moment … a shock action and a new quantitative Easing is needed.
According to Tajani, the priority is not so much discussing rates as regards the cost of money to restore breath to those who produce and export. And in fact not surprisingly, investors, cautious as always, in these hours have the eyes on the Fed, and await the data on the core PCE inflation scheduled at the weekend to understand the direction of the next few months.
Giorgetti and the psychological impact of rates
Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, connected by videoconference to the Rimini meeting, focuses on the most sociological aspect of the market as regards the duties imposed by Trump.
In fact, he warned that the new American rates risk undermining confidence rather than export numbers. According to him, the duties first affect the expectations of the operators, generating an atmosphere of uncertainty that ends up weighing on the trust of businesses and their way of planning investments and sales.
Palazzo Chigi pushes to safeguard the agri -food
Palazzo Chigi has made it known that the government will move together with Brussels and other European partners to expand the list of sectors excluded from the new rates, with the agri -food at the center of attention.
From Rome also comes the confirmation that the comparison with Washington will not stop at agricultural products: the next round will concern steel and aluminum, two dossiers that the executive considers priority in the future passages of the UE-US declaration.
Italy, however, has no free hand in negotiations: commercial policy is a game that is played in Brussels. European treaties prohibit direct bilateral agreements with Washington and therefore force Rome to move within the community perimeter.
Palazzo Chigi has chosen to be compact with the union, however trying to push the most delicate dossiers without challenging European unity. The executive insists that the most exposed sectors of Made in Italy are protected in the next rounds.
The alarm of the VIARN?
Italian wine enters the sights of American duties and the sector is restless. Ciro Giordano, president of the Vesuvius Wine Protection Consortium, defined a serious obstacle of 15%:
The USA are one of the main outlet markets for our wines, and this duty risks reducing the competitiveness of the Italian product compared to competitors not subject to similar barriers, such as Chilean or Australian wines.
For him, the most immediate consequence would be a drop in exports and closer margins, especially for the small bell cellars who have invested to open abroad.
Giordano asks Brussels to return to the table with Washington to exclude Italian wine from duties and invokes support measures as incentives for new markets and compensation funds.
