A fatal blow to businesses: '30% tariffs are a knockout'

"A technical knockout blow," says Confcooperative. "A mortal blow" for Coldiretti. A blow to Made in Italy worth "€35 billion a year," estimates the CGIA. Donald Trump's letter to Europe announcing 30% tariffs is causing serious alarm among businesses.
Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini, however, warns: "Now we all need to stay calm and keep our nerves. We cannot jeopardize our financial markets." He adds: "It's obvious that the letter from the United States is a disturbing sign of a desire to negotiate." Confindustria Veneto calls for "concrete measures to support the competitiveness of our businesses: investments and access to credit, streamlining bureaucracy and taxes, and defining energy policy." The president of Turin's industrialists, Marco Gay, also calls for "steady nerves and unity," cautioning that "we don't want to jeopardize markets and consolidated relationships."
Confartigianato President Marco Granelli also calls on the government to take concrete measures to support the international competitiveness of our businesses: tools for market diversification, innovation incentives, and infrastructure and energy investments that strengthen the resilience of our production system. This is now a time when the trade war could "deal a severe blow to Italian exports to the US." €66.6 billion, "of which a full €17.87 billion comes from small businesses." Confartigianato estimates that the region most exposed to SME exports to the US is Lombardy (€4.4 billion), followed by Veneto, Tuscany, and Emilia-Romagna. Among the provinces, Florence leads the way (€1.54 billion), followed by Vicenza, Belluno, and Arezzo.
In individual sectors, furniture entrepreneurs are also "concerned and alarmed," with FerlegnoArredo asking: "Europe as a whole and our government," Feltrin adds, "must be fully aware that failing to protect our businesses now could lead to the industrial desertification of the Old Continent."
Confcommercio calls for "negotiate, negotiate, negotiate." For Maurizio Gardini, president of Confcooperative, "Trump is proving to be a sower of controversy and discord," but Europe is displaying "its usual ineffectiveness."
The agri-food sector is in serious alarm. For the Grana Padano Protection Consortium, which predicts prices in the United States will rise to over €50 per kilo, Trump's move is "a veritable declaration of economic war." Coldiretti emphasizes that the new additional tariffs would also be added to existing ones, particularly penalizing certain supply chains: with new 30% tariffs, the additional tariffs would rise to 45% for cheese, 35% for wine, 42% for processed tomatoes, 36% for stuffed pasta, and 42% for homogenized jams and preserves. Confagricoltura, for example, considers the 30% tariffs "go beyond even the most dire expectations and are absolutely unacceptable," a "doom" not only for the sector but "for the economies of entire countries."
ansa