No ambiguity on free trade - Gentiloni (4)

G7 will have to renew faith in open society, economy

Redazione ANSA Rome
(ANSA) - Rome, March 31 - Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Friday the Group of Seven (G7) in Taormina in May will have to "also adopt a stance towards underlying choices that do not tolerate ambiguity: we must renew the faith in the open economy and open societies on which we have built decades of prosperity". He said "we must bet again on the free market and free trade, the greatest economic engine in history". Gentiloni was speaking at the B7 Business Summit in Rome a day after US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on EU goods including Vespa scooters and San Pellegrino mineral water unless the EU lifts a ban on hormone-produced beef. Gentiloni said that economies must be further opened up and protection must not become "closure". He said free-trade treaties were in difficulty and should produce a "win-win" situation for workers. Gentiloni also told the B7 that "the challenge directly concerns the action of our government which will be translated in the coming weeks through decisions that the government will take with the aim of keeping accounts OK and at the same time accompany the growth that is finally happening in Europe: accompany it, nurture it, enable it to have a faster pace and that there are no depressive effects from the decisions taken". He was referring to an EU-requested budget adjustment and the government's economic and financial blueprint, the DEF. Gentiloni told the B7 that "ten years have passed since the worst postwar recession, we are seeing signs of recovery, encouraging but still not sufficient". He said the issues to tackle were "low growth, unemployment rates higher than we are willing to tolerate and the spread of a new perception of inequalities which in many societies are considered unacceptable". The EU is keeping up with the US in emerging from the financial crisis, Gentiloni said. He said the latest data from the eurozone was encouraging and the recovery was "generalised". Gentiloni also called for a "global effort" against inequality and to boost employment, saying that we must bet on "economic freedom" to stoke growth and stressing that the "response to anxiety is not Luddism and a return to the 19th century". There is a "crisis of confidence" in today's economies in reaction to the impact of globalisation and new technologies which brings the risk of the "masters of illusion" winning out, Gentiloni told the summit. "Often the solutions proposed are not rational or realistic," he said, saying "some people go as far as offering illusions, and we must not underestimate the possibilities of success of the masters of illusion". Finally, Gentiloni told the B7 that May's G7 summit Taormina "will be I think an expression of numerous changes. "It is the first G7 which the new US President will take part in, in the next few weeks the results of the French elections are highly anticipated and in these days the Brexit process has started". He said that in Taormina "we'll be faced with a world with many novelties to address". photo: Gentiloni (R), with Confindustria chief Vincenzo Boccia at the B7
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