Trump's tariffs

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'Against tariffs Europe and Italy invest and simplify'

ABI President Patuelli: 'In negotiations with the US, EU unity will be important. States support productive factors"

6 April 2025

3' min read

Markets and public opinion almost all over the world have been strongly affected by the new US Administration's decision to impose tariffs on almost all economies around the globe.

In the face of such an event, of historic proportions, it is necessary first of all to reflect with a calm mind and a high degree of rational coolness, to study these measures, their more or less profound causes, the risks and the possibilities of dealing with these new emergencies, seeking dialogue, without suffering injustice.

Far from political polemics, let us remember high principles and experiences: first of all, the teachings of Carlo Cattaneo who advocated free trade as a decisive factor for the promotion of work, innovation, state order and good governance. Cattaneo, in fact, considered free trade essential and was very much against protectionism, as was Cavour, who was very open to free trade.

Undoubtedly, the increase in the free movement of goods, money and people has been one of the decisive factors in economic and social growth. Now even the mere word 'tariffs' has frightened markets and peoples, out of concern that a phase of economic warfare is beginning. Instead, every rational effort must be made to avoid all forms of war, including economic war.

First of all, it is necessary to study the measures launched by the US, how they are constructed, what they really respond to. In his press conference on 2 April, President Trump showed a board in which he highlighted the new US tariffs as a response to the tariffs of various parts of the world.

But how are these alleged duties of the various areas or states of the world calculated? In fact, in several cases, these are not duties of individual states of the globe or of the EU, but frequently various calculations that do not refer to tariffs imposed on imports of US goods for individual countries: instead, they are calculations of the ratio between the quantities of US imports and exports to individual states or bodies such as the EU.

The calculations attributed by the US President to alleged EU tariffs do not necessarily reflect unfair policies and behaviour, but more often differences in trade competitiveness between different products and national economies.

Thus, the US choices are primarily political choices, albeit with immediate economic effects that entail risks of rising inflation and slowing economic development to the point of recession.

Instead, the objective to be achieved is free trade within a framework of certainty and stability of fair and agreed legal rules, avoiding the escalation of trade wars.The legal competence to negotiate with the US on tariffs and reciprocal trade belongs to the EU.

The EU's unity in the negotiations with the USA will therefore also be very important. In the meantime, the EU and the individual states must, within their respective competences, do more to promote investment, production and employment. Fiscal policies are still the responsibility of the states, which are also in competition with each other in the EU.

Therefore, national measures are also indispensable and urgent to encourage stable productive investments in both savings and corporate profits, supporting production factors starting with energy, whose costs are starting to fall in these very first days of US tariffs, but continue to be excessively high in Italy.

In short, the new US duties must also represent a strong stimulus to the EU and Italy for substantial regulatory and bureaucratic simplifications, in order to more incisively foster development and employment, aware, with Luigi Einaudi, that "the plant of competition does not grow by itself, it is not a centuries-old tree that the furious storm cannot shake; it is a delicate shrub that must be defended with affection against the diseases of selfishness and special interests and carefully supported against the dangers that threaten it from every part of the economic firmament'.

* President Italian Banking Association