MILAN (Reuters) -Italy risks losing 20 billion euros ($23.6 billion) in exports and 118,000 jobs next year if the U.S. imposes tariffs of 10% on all European products, the head of the main Italian business lobby said on Wednesday.
“Italy does not just export luxury products – with a demand that isn’t very sensitive to prices – but mainly machinery, means of transport, and leather goods,” Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini told daily Il Corriere della Sera in an interview.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently downplayed the potential impact of such a level of tariffs on Italian companies, stating it would not be particularly harmful.
Orsini, however, warned that tariffs of 10% would be unsustainable for the Italian economy.
He added that they would effectively translate into a 23.5% duty as the impact of the dollar depreciation against the euro since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, amounting to 13.55%, needed to be taken into account too.
“A product that a year ago an Italian company was selling in the United States for 100 now costs our American customer 123. We fear very heavy setbacks,” he added.
A deadline for countries to finalise trade agreements with Washington is set to expire on July 9.
The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, accepts the U.S. baseline tariff of 10% as unavoidable but wants immediate relief in key sectors as part of any agreement, according to diplomats.
The euro has risen some 9% against the dollar since April as investors, spooked by Trump’s unpredictable economic policy, warmed to the European Union’s newfound military and industrial ambitions.
($1 = 0.8493 euros)
(Reporting by Cristina CarlevaroEditing by Keith Weir)
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