Negotiate to the end with one voice in Europe for avoid a trade war; act on the bureaucratic and administrative obstacles that slow down the competitiveness of companies within the EU; explore and consolidate new markets overseas; introduce a common “zero duty” fund for economic and production compensation measures.
These are the 4 guidelines of the system strategy illustrated by the president of Cia-Agricoltori Italiani, Cristiano Fini, at the meeting at Palazzo Chigi with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni , to deal with the effects of Donald Trump's US tariffs on the Made in Italy agri-food sector.
In the meeting Fini highlighted that "it is absolutely necessary to allocate adequate resources to support farmers and territories most exposed to Trump's duties. Starting precisely with producers of wine (whose Italian exports are worth 2 billion in the United States), oil (almost 1 billion), pasta (1 billion) and cheese (550 million) and regions such as Sardinia (49% of the island's agri-food exports end up in the US) or Tuscany (28% of its agri-food exports)".
In this sense, according to Fini, it is necessary to "provide for the introduction of a European duty-free fund to be used for compensation actions".
Interventions "also in derogation of the EU rules on state aid, which could materialize first of all in the form of compensation for losses suffered by farmers . In addition - concluded the president of Cia - the use of community resources should be directed to further 'indirect' compensations that include, for example, measures to reduce the costs of energy and other production factors, which greatly affect the export dynamics of companies".
For her part, Prime Minister Meloni , after meetings with trade associations on the subject of duties, commented: «Upstream , it is very difficult for us to precisely evaluate what the actual consequences of this new situation will be on our GDP and therefore we must also reason taking these elements into account».
"However, I am certain - the prime minister added - that the panic and alarmism that are being generated risk doing much more damage than the measure itself. I say this because what we have seen in recent days is that they have also affected companies that are not even minimally connected to exports to the United States."
(Unioneonline/lf)