De Carlo (FdI): “10% duties? They are bearable, but Trump is wrong. Mercosur? It could be an opportunity”

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“The antidote to tariffs is agreements. 10 percent? For those Italian products, with high added value, it would be a bearable result. And Mercosur? Yes, but only if there is reciprocity between the countries that adhere to it”. Senator Luca De Carlo, coordinator of Fratelli d'Italia in Veneto, speaks to Il Foglio while the delicate trade negotiations between Donald Trump and the EU are underway. In the past few hours Giorgia Meloni has had a series of talks: with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and with French President Emmanuel Macron. The Prime Minister aims to find an agreement as soon as possible: together with Merz, she considers 10 percent acceptable (for Japan and South Korea it will be at 25), unlike Macron who instead wants to insist on the negotiation.

Senator De Carlo, what is your opinion? “Trump is trying, from his point of view, to remedy a situation of trade imbalance in the United States. Through a policy, that of tariffs, which I believe to be not very effective”. And which, adds the FdI representative, risks denying one of the paradigms on which the West is based. “America has always believed in the free market. Tariffs should be something absolutely distant from the Western economic vision”.

And yet here we are, with the United States raising its voice and the EU looking for an answer. While the opposition in Italy attacks the government. How do we get out of it? “We are convinced, and we have said it from the start, that the answer cannot be counter-duties, because there is a risk of a chain reaction, which is difficult to manage. We have committed ourselves in this direction and we have clearly said that Europe must make a common front. We all emerge from a situation like this together, I don't really believe in bilateral discussions. However, the EU must regain its centrality”, replies De Carlo, recalling how Brussels has also made mistakes. “I am thinking of the Green Deal, which today is a duty on many companies. We have also seen it with the measures on the automotive sector, which have massacred the sector. These are the damages of an ideological policy”. Which today, continues De Carlo, must be definitively shelved to relaunch European protagonism, within an axis with the entire West. "This is the goal for which Meloni is spending herself. China and Russia see, in our weakness, the possibility of influencing us at a geopolitical level. Instead, it is essential not to divide ourselves, we are working for this and this is what we want to make Trump understand".

A few weeks ago De Carlo had expressed concerns about American economic measures, but said he was optimistic about the possibility of finding a solution. Has he changed his mind? “I remain confident, also because negotiations are still ongoing. It is obvious that we are aiming for zero tariffs. But 10 percent on high value-added products, like many of those we export to America, would be tolerable”. The FdI representative also recalls that “Minister Lollobrigida was clear about an intervention to support companies, if there was a need, also through the PNRR. While the vice president of the Commission, Raffaele Fitto, spoke of a possible use of the Cohesion Funds”. Without forgetting, and the senator underlines this, that beyond the tariffs “our companies have always demonstrated great flexibility, the ability to open up to new frontiers” . Which ones? “ India , for example: an extraordinarily large market, where 20 percent of the population can have access to our products. Even with Mercosur , if a principle of reciprocity is respected, we have the possibility of being central in South American countries”. Explain to us better: “In those countries today wine has a duty of 55 percent, which is why we are unable to penetrate those markets”, notes De Carlo. “We must therefore sign agreements based on reciprocity, with the same rules that we apply to our farmers, to truly have free competition. Even in this case – concludes the senator – the agreement always remains the best antidote to duties”

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