Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would like the European Union to create a free trade zone with the US to avoid a transatlantic tariff war.
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He also wants the EU to adopt the trade deal reached with the United States last summer, which “fell into chaos” after the US Supreme Court struck down some of President Donald Trump's powers to impose tariffs.
“I consider tariffs between Europe and the US to be a mistake” Meloni said in an interview with Bloomberg this week. “We should be taking the complete opposite direction — we should be moving towards a free trade area.”.
EU-US customs war. Italian Prime Minister: we should go in the opposite direction
The EU and the US abandoned talks on a free trade area in 2016 after attempts to significantly cut tariffs and reduce non-tariff barriers sparked opposition in several member states. The treatment of agricultural products was an insurmountable problem in negotiations.
Meloni has been playing a long game with the Trump administration, trying to promote a positive working relationship with the US president. Italy played a role in the EU-US deal reached last summer, she said, but her position on tariffs (the US is Italy's second-largest export market) was clear.
“We have tried to de-escalate the situation as much as possible, in short, to strive for an agreement that is balanced and reasonable,” she said.
Trump's tariffs are illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court had no doubts
Last week The US Supreme Court declared most of the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump illegal. The court ruled that the president violated federal law by unilaterally imposing far-reaching tariffs around the world.
However, this does not mean the end of the tariff war. The court's ruling concerns the act on the basis of which the US president imposed tariffs. However, Trump announced that he would use a different mechanism and announced a global tariff – first of 10 percent, and later of 15 percent.
The European Parliament decided to suspend the ratification of the trade agreement with the United Statesnegotiated last summer.
– The European Parliament, together with the three largest groups, decided to suspend the trade agreement. This is a decisive response and the most powerful tool we currently have in our hands because it means that the United States will not receive access to the European internal market with zero tariffs, said Manfred Weber, chairman of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament.
Source: Bloomberg
