Europe must avoid not just a tariff row “but a verbal escalation” with the US, Italy’s minister for enterprise Valentino Valentini has warned.
Mr Valentini was replying to a question about how European countries should respond to being labelled “pathetic freeloaders” by US defence secretary Pete Hegseth and to the looming threat of a trade war with the US.
“We need to respond collectively, patiently ... avoiding not just a tariff escalation but also a verbal escalation which can be just as dangerous,” he told The Irish Times.
Mr Valentini was in Dublin on Tuesday for a meeting with his Irish counterpart, Peter Burke, and to speak at a conference hosted by the Italian Irish Chamber of Commerce aimed at forging greater trading ties between the two countries. He is the first EU minister to visit Ireland in an official capacity since the Government here took office in January.
“I’m afraid we’ll see a lot of April 2nd-like D-Days down the road and we have to be prepared for that,” Mr Valentini said.
With relations between Europe and the US seemingly on a knife edge, US president Donald Trump has signalled he will announce tariffs on EU imports on April 2nd in a move that is certain to trigger retaliatory action from Brussels.
“There are no winners in a trade war, not even for those who think they are going to prevail,” Mr Valentini said.
With exports to the US totalling €626 billion, Italy, like Ireland, is highly exposed to an EU-US trade war. The US is Italy’s top export destination outside of the EU, with up to 11 per cent of exported products – everything from electrical appliances and chemicals to Italian cars and wine – sold there each year. One recent study suggested US tariffs could wipe €1 billion off Italian wine exports.
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, whose brand of far-right nationalism broadly aligns with Trump’s worldview, has positioned herself as the bridge-builder between Brussels and Washington.
[ How do you become a Trump whisperer? Ask Starmer, Macron and MeloniOpens in new window ]
Mr Valentini said Ireland and Italy both punched above their weight internationally and should meet the challenge of tariffs by diversifying into new markets and by cementing closer trading ties with each other.
New figures produced for the Dublin conference show bilateral trade between Ireland and Italy rose from €8 billion in 2021 to €11 billion last year, with chemicals and pharma accounting for the bulk of the trade in both directions. Italy is Ireland’s eight largest export market.
“One of the consequences of trade tariffs is a rewiring of the economic and commercial ties in the world and we have to make sure we’re part of that,” Mr Valentini said, suggesting this “rewiring” might entail the EU signing the proposed trade deal with Mercosur and/or forging stronger ties with Asean countries.
Furio Pietribiasi, head of Italian bank Mediolanum’s Irish fund operation and president of the Italian Irish Chamber of Commerce, said the bilateral trade figures did not capture the full extent of trade between Italy and Ireland because they did not include financial and tech services.
He called on companies working in both markets to press their respective governments for greater co-operation economically, highlighting that Italian energy giant Eni was working on big renewable energy projects in Scotland and could easily do the same here.
