US tariffs on Italian agri-food products: representations by the EU Commission to the new US administration to remove them

Question for written answer  E-001210/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Mara Bizzotto (ID)

On 12 February 2021, the new President of the United States, Joe Biden, confirmed that the US tariffs introduced by the previous administration in October 2019 on various Italian products with an indication of origin, such as liqueurs, Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, Asiago, Fontina, Provolone and certain charcuterie products, including salami and mortadella, would remain in place.

The US tariffs on Italian exports are worth around half a billion euros and were introduced in the context of the Boeing-Airbus dispute, which Italy is however not involved in.

In view of the fact that the United States constitute the largest non-European market for Italian exports of agri-food products, worth some EUR 5 billion in 2020,

and given that Italian producers are concerned that the negative impact of US tariffs are compounded by the economic damage caused by the current Coronavirus pandemic,

and that it is important to strengthen economic relations between the EU and the US in order to protect the excellent Italian agri-food products and the jobs that depend on them;

I should be grateful if the Commission would answer the following questions:

• 1.How does the Commission intend to engage with the new US administration in order to remove the tariffs currently levied on many Italian agri-food products?
• 2.How does it intend, in future, to prevent countries that are not involved in trade disputes from being unfairly affected by tariffs that severely damage key sectors of their national economy, as in the case of the agri-food sector in Italy?