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Giorgia Meloni has criticised Brussels for responding with retaliatory tariffs to US levies and warned that the tit-for-tat risks fuelling inflation in the EU.
The Italian prime minister, who is meeting fellow EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, urged the European Commission to open urgent negotiations with the Trump administration to avert the damaging consequences of a trade war.
“It is not wise to fall into the temptation of reprisals that become a vicious circle in which everyone loses,” she told the Italian parliament on Tuesday. “We must continue to work concretely and pragmatically to find possible common ground and avoid a trade war that would benefit neither the US nor Europe.”
Her comments come after the commission — which runs trade policy on behalf of the bloc — said it would impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent on US imports, including whiskey, motorcycles and jeans from April 1 in retaliation for Washington’s decision to reintroduce a 25 per cent levy on imports of steel and aluminium. US President Donald Trump has since threatened to impose a 200 per cent tariff on all European alcohol imports, including Italian wine and spirits.
Meloni, a rightwing politician and the only European leader to attend Trump’s inauguration, has walked a tightrope between maintaining good relations with Washington while siding with the EU in describing Russia as the aggressor in its war with Ukraine. On Thursday she expressed support for Trump’s efforts to end the war and for restoring intelligence sharing and military assistance to Ukraine after Kyiv agreed to back his proposed 30-day ceasefire.
But she also warned that an escalating trade war with the US would reduce Europeans’ purchasing power and force the European Central Bank to raise interest rates.
“The result would be inflation and monetary tightening that dampens economic growth,” she warned. “Italy’s energies must be spent in the search for common sense solutions between the US and Europe.”
Meloni also poured cold water on French and German calls for the continent to chart its own path on defence, insisting that without the US there was no viable security for the continent, including for Ukraine.
“It is right that Europe equips itself to do its part, but it is at best naive and at worst crazy to think that today I can do it alone without Nato, outside that Euro-Atlantic framework that has guaranteed security for 75 years,” she said.
The Italian leader said her coalition was committed to strengthening Italian security but expressed concerns about ReArm Europe, a Brussels plan to raise €150bn in loans for national defence investments and to exempt military spending from the bloc’s fiscal rules. She said the name evoked a scramble for lethal weapons — something that is jarring for many in Italy, with its strong, church-influenced pacifist streak.
Rome’s capacity to make use of the relaxed fiscal rules and take on more debt for defence remains limited due to its current debt burden of more than 135 per cent of GDP. Meloni said she would move prudently on extra borrowing.
She also expressed serious reservations about a Franco-British initiative to send European troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers, describing it as a “very complex, risky and ineffective option”.
But she said her coalition agreed with the need to beef up Italy’s ability to fend off cyber and other hybrid attacks, including on undersea cables and energy infrastructure.
“We have always believed in that ambitious — and I think now unpostponable — goal of building that solid European pillar of Nato.”
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi
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