How much are EU 'internal tariffs' worth? Here is what the IMF study quoted by Meloni says

"According to the International Monetary Fund, the average cost to sell a good between EU states is a tariff of about 45% compared to an estimated 15% for domestic trade in the US. Not to mention services where the estimated average tariff is as high as 110%'. This was said by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in her intervention at the Confindustria Assembly, during which she urged Europe to have "the courage to remove those internal duties it has imposed on itself".

The IMF study that Meloni cited was theRegional Economic Outlook 2024 dedicated to Europe, published last autumn, which had also been mentioned several times by the former ECB president Mario Draghi, during presentations of his report. The analysis conducted by the Fund's economists noted that in 2020 trade costs within Europe were equivalent to a 'considerable ad valorem duty of 44%' for the average manufacturing sector, compared to 15% among US states, and 'up to 110% in the case of the service sector'. A particular problem, the Fund's experts pointed out, are the 'substantial internal barriers to entry in the services sector in several countries'. In the graph measuring the level of entry barriers to services in the various European countries compared to the five most open economies of the OECD, Italy is among the most closed, more or less on a par with Hungary: in Europe, only Greece and Portugal do worse.

In the single market, as a study by the European Parliament points out, many non-tariff barriers persist, stemming from laws, technical regulations and practices and creating obstacles to trade. Barriers can be of a general nature, such as problems with implementation and enforcement of EU law at national level, incomplete or divergent e-government solutions or complex VAT requirements in intra-EU trade. Barriers can also be sectoral and relate only to specific goods, services or retail markets. In the same IMF report, the Fund's experts recommended, among other things, to "remove all remaining barriers to a fully functioning single market for goods and services". The key measures to be implemented are 'opening protected sectors, such as financial services, telecommunications and electricity, to more foreign competitors; improvements in border infrastructure; and harmonised rules for firms operating in different jurisdictions, such as a 28th common company regime. These measures,' they concluded, 'would reduce business costs and increase benefits of scale.