The news from the last few hours is that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio has sent a letter to Italian companies interested in the foreign market and concerned by the news regarding duties and taxes from the USA.
"I fully understand the concerns of the entire sector and the impact that these measures could have on our country and our businesses. As I had the opportunity to reiterate when meeting with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, we will defend Italian businesses with all our strength. This will also be possible thanks to a path of dialogue that we have already undertaken with the USA," the minister declared.
“We respond to Minister Di Maio that we are available to dialogue and cooperate to open new trade agreements and work in the best possible way to avoid the introduction of duties and additional taxes that are not good for the US and Italian markets,” declare the analysts of the Think Tank “Imprese del Sud”.
The US will soon impose customs tariffs on European products for approximately 7 billion euros – specifies Sergio Passariello, founder of Imprese del Sud – hitting airplanes and airplane parts produced in Europe but also other sectors, first and foremost the German mechanical industry which historically has Italian SMEs among its main sub-suppliers.
For Italy, agri-food is the sector that risks being most affected by the Trump administration's decision endorsed by the WTO. Including beverages and tobacco, the sector is the third in the ranking of Italian exports to the United States, with a value of just over 4 billion euros in 2018. Also in this case, as for total exports, the dynamics of recent years are positive: the increase recorded compared to 2017 was 4,1%.
Passariello continues: “We ask the minister for effective economic policies, streamlining of bureaucracy and the promotion of international free trade agreements, to be considered as weapons for the growth of our trade. Economic elements as is already happening in many European countries with CETA”.
Minister Di Maio launched an appeal to businesses and diplomacy, writing: “I wanted, as one of the first acts, to bring the foreign trade function to the Farnesina, in order to create an even more effective synergy between Embassies, Consulates and Foreign Trade Institutes. And among my tasks there is also that of protecting the country and Made in Italy. I will devote all my energy to this, also because I firmly believe that Italian foreign policy is made, in addition to the Ministry I lead, by our entrepreneurs who export excellence in demand throughout the world.” A vision that we share, says Passariello, but if truly realized. “We must strengthen the promotion of our Made in Italy abroad and the activities of embassies and consulates can truly become a tool for economic and commercial action,” continues Passariello.
Along the same lines is the analyst of the Think Tank “Imprese del Sud”, Domenico Letizia who declares: “The action of our diplomacy can become fundamental for the promotion of our companies abroad, valorizing the knowledge of markets far from ours, the participation, truly open to all, in international fairs abroad also in cooperation with the initiatives and events that take place throughout the year by our embassies“.
“We have the best of every product and we want to support companies that export all over the world,” concludes Passariello, hoping for “a commercial system linked to foreign countries that is truly capable of generating promotion, protection and knowledge for our business community, reiterating the importance of advantageous commercial agreements like the one with Canada. Also in this case it is important for everyone to fight against fake news linked to fears of foreign markets and the rules of other countries.”
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