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Giorgia Meloni has criticised Brussels for responding with retaliatory tariffs to US levies and warned that the tit-for-tat dangers fuelling inflation within the EU.
The Italian prime minister, who’s assembly fellow EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, urged the European Fee to open pressing negotiations with the Trump administration to avert the damaging penalties of a commerce warfare.
“It is not wise to fall into the temptation of reprisals that become a vicious circle in which everyone loses,” she informed the Italian parliament on Tuesday. “We must continue to work concretely and pragmatically to find possible common ground and avoid a trade war that would benefit neither the US nor Europe.”
Her feedback come after the fee — which runs commerce coverage on behalf of the bloc — mentioned it could impose tariffs of as much as 50 per cent on US imports, together with whiskey, bikes and denims from April 1 in retaliation for Washington’s determination to reintroduce a 25 per cent levy on imports of metal and aluminium. US President Donald Trump has since threatened to impose a 200 per cent tariff on all European alcohol imports, together with Italian wine and spirits.
Meloni, a rightwing politician and the one European chief to attend Trump’s inauguration, has walked a tightrope between sustaining good relations with Washington whereas siding with the EU in describing Russia because the aggressor in its warfare with Ukraine. On Tuesday she expressed assist for Trump’s efforts to finish the warfare and for restoring intelligence sharing and army help to Ukraine after Kyiv agreed to again his proposed 30-day ceasefire.
However she additionally warned that an escalating commerce warfare with the US would cut back Europeans’ buying energy and pressure the European Central Financial institution to boost rates of interest.
“The result would be inflation and monetary tightening that dampens economic growth,” she warned. “Italy’s energies must be spent in the search for common sense solutions between the US and Europe.”
Meloni additionally poured chilly water on French and German requires Europe to chart its personal path on defence, insisting that with out the US there was no viable safety for the continent, together with for Ukraine.
“It is right that Europe equips itself to do its part, but it is at best naive and at worst crazy to think that today I can do it alone without Nato, outside that Euro-Atlantic framework that has guaranteed security for 75 years,” she mentioned.
The Italian chief mentioned her coalition was dedicated to strengthening Italian safety however expressed considerations about ReArm Europe, a Brussels plan to boost €150bn in loans for nationwide defence investments and exempt army spending from the bloc’s fiscal guidelines. She mentioned the title evoked a scramble for deadly weapons — one thing that’s jarring for a lot of in Italy, with its robust, church-influenced pacifist streak.
Rome’s capability to utilize the relaxed fiscal guidelines and tackle extra debt for defence stays restricted attributable to its present debt burden of greater than 135 per cent of GDP. Meloni mentioned she would transfer prudently on further borrowing.
She additionally expressed critical reservations a few Franco-British initiative to ship European troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers, describing it as a “very complex, risky and ineffective option”.
However she mentioned her coalition agreed with the necessity to beef up Italy’s potential to fend off cyber and different hybrid assaults, together with on undersea cables and power infrastructure.
“We have always believed in that ambitious — and I think now unpostponable — goal of building that solid European pillar of Nato.”
Further reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi
