US tariff policy contradicts the
NATO alliance, President Sergio Mattarella said Tuesday.
"The role of NATO is fundamental," he said after receiving
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa at the Quirinale
presidential palace.
"The Alliance has for decades been a source of peace and
security and that requires that every obstacle should be
overcome and absorbed.
"And tariffs policy is contradictory to the logic of the
Atlantic Alliance".
Great Italian cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino,
Grana Padano and Gorgonzola were among the products hit as the
25% tariffs United States President Donald Trump has set on many
EU goods kicked in on October 18.
Italian spirits are also among the products getting pounded
in the tariffs worth a total of 7.5 billion dollars.
Farmers' association Coldiretti said the measures are set to
cause a 20% drop in the sales of the agro-food products affected
in the US.
Premier Giuseppe Conte told a press conference after an EU
summit in Brussels that "these (US) tariffs hurt, we wouldn't
have wanted them, we had worked to try to make sure they did not
come".
He said the tariffs regarded other countries "for 94%, and
only 6% concerns Italy, but they hurt us anyway.
"We are already working on compensatory measures".
US tariffs will cause an average fall in turnover for small
and medium spirits producers of 20-25%, wine and spirits group
Federvini said.
Around 100 of these firms are worst exposed to the tariffs,
it told ANSA.
Exports to the US are worth around 163 million dollars,
according to US customs, with a downward variation of 35%.
Italy is the third biggest exporter of spirits to the States
after France and Ireland.
The new U.S. tariffs on EU products may have a major impact
on the Italian economy even though they affect "a relatively
limited quota of Italian exports to the United States" the Bank
of Italy said.
The central bank said that around 400 million euros worth of
Italian exports are affected, but also sounded the alarm about
the "indirect effect" of the tariffs.
Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said the tariffs
"increase uncertainty" and were a brake on the growth of trade.
Trump told Mattarella at the White House that the US doesn't
want to put tariffs on European cars because "it would destroy
the German economy in particular but would also damage the
Italian one," Trump's economic advisor Lawrence Kudlow told a
seminar on US-Italian ties at the Italian embassy.
"I'm glad he said it," said Kudrow.
"I noticed because it's the first time I've heard him say so
clearly".
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said the government
was "against an escalation of tariffs (between the US and Italy)
and we encourage negotiated solutions to avert measures that
would damage both our economies".
Fifteen international alcoholic beverage associations wrote a
joint letter to the US administration and the European
Commission asking for an immediate halt to new US tariffs on
wines and spirits in European countries.
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