Elly Schlein: 'Duties, business and labour: here are the proposals of the PD'
The Pd secretary after the campaign to listen to the manufacturing world: US duties cause uncertainty, fresh resources are needed. "Meloni's mission? So far it doesn't seem to have had great results".
by Emilia Patta
5' min read
5' min read
"The duties have already started to do great damage even before 2 April, when US President Donald Trump signed them, because they have caused the uncertainty that is the first enemy of economic development. This is something that all the business organisations, large medium and small, cooperatives, farmers' organisations, and also the trade unions that we have met in recent days have told us. They have told me about goods stuck in the ports and orders that have vanished. We have seen that in just a few days about 14 trillion dollars have been burnt in the stock markets and the stock market has had a collapse comparable to that of 9/11'.
Pd secretary Elly Schlein has in the past few hours concluded her campaign to listen to businesses and social partners and launches an appeal to the government to deal with the duty emergency: "Let's work together on some urgent measures in favour of businesses, starting with the reshaping of unused Transition 5.0 funds and the misalignment of the price of electricity from that of gas. Italy exported EUR 65 billion of goods to the US in 2024, with a strong trade surplus of EUR 39 billion, and is the second largest exporting country after Germany. So it is clear that Trump's duties risk hitting Italian companies and workers in particular. A trade war that would have catastrophic results both globally and for a country like ours must be averted at all costs and trust must be rebuilt. And I would like to point out a further concern that we have picked up among companies: it is true that there has been a 90-day suspension, but the 10% and 25% duties on steel and cars have remained. But above all, the mega duty between the US and China has remained, with the consequence that Chinese overcapacity risks being dumped on European markets'.
Secretary, yesterday was the day of Giorgia Meloni's mission to Washington.
The PM has pledged to increase military spending and get Italian companies to invest 10 billion in the US when she has not yet found one to protect those affected by duties and avoid relocations. In return she apparently got a visit from Trump to Italy. So far that doesn't seem like much of a balance. In general, the issue is not to dialogue with Trump, but to do it head-on. The key issue is not to give Trump the idea that he can deal bilaterally with each country, which is what he would like in order to weaken the European Union. Europe must be united and united in this negotiation and must be ready to strike where it hurts the most, which is the American Big Tech that supports Trump. The current president is our political opponent, but this does not mean giving up the fundamental relationship with the United States. We must therefore negotiate until the last possible minute, and do so with the knowledge that we are a market of 500 million people, the second largest trading power in the world and the third largest in terms of GDP. And also by clarifying what for Europe is negotiable and what is not: we must defend both the quality and distinctiveness of our products. In the USA, to be clear, there are quite different rules on GMOs and glyphosates than in Europe.
Is it right to open up to other markets, to China?
