Undersecretary Scalfarotto expressed great satisfaction for the decision of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) not to add any additional duty to Italian products as part of the six-monthly review of the measures adopted in implementation of the WTO ruling on Airbus subsidies, providing for increases only for specific categories of goods from France and Germany.
The US authorities had full authority to increase the volume of goods subject to tariff measures by more than 4 billion in total, potentially including Italian products such as wine, leather, oil, pasta etc.
“The decision rewards the efforts of the Government and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our Embassy in Washington to maintain a constant channel of dialogue with the American authorities responsible for trade policy. In my telephone conversation with the USTR summits in recent weeks, following my visit to Washington at the end of January on the occasion of the previous tariff review, I have always stressed not only the importance of recognizing the centrality of the deep bond between Italy and the United States but also the harmfulness of tariffs for the economy on both sides of the Atlantic. Free trade has always been a driving force for growth and development for Europe and the United States, and even more so in a post-COVID recession in which not only European producers but also American importers and distributors had expressed concern about possible tariff increases.
Finally, we are satisfied with a decision that rewards the efforts made by Italy to call loudly (as I did in meetings with my counterparts from the 4 Airbus consortium member countries) for the review of public subsidies considered illegitimate by the WTO. We will work intensively in the coming months, also following the openings by Commissioner Hogan in recent weeks on such subsidies, for the abolition of residual duties on certain Italian agri-food products, established by the United States in 2019″.
