There are not only cheeses among the main Italian agri-food products that ended up under Trump's ax since last October, when the WTO authorized the United States to apply additional duties on an amount of about 7.5 billion dollars to products imported by the EU, against the verdict issued on the content of the subsidies paid (unfairly, according to the World Trade Organization) to the Airbus Consortium.
Of the more than 5.4 billion dollars of food products imported from Italy in 2018, those subject to an additional duty of 25% concern assets worth 482 million, or 9% of the total.
Going into the details, it can be seen how Trump wanted to hit Italian products with significant market positions in the US. In fact, if 48% relates to cheeses (in particular Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano) another 35% relates to liqueurs (more precisely liqueurs, bitters, aperitifs and other spirit drinks), that is to say the category of products that on the total of the American imports of this type has a 17% share (the third after France and Ireland) and that, unlike the previous ones, has seen its sales increase in this market by over 18% in the last decade, against an average of an increase in imports of 4.5%.
"Not many people know that Italy shares the world leadership, with Germany, in the export of liquor. In 2018 we sold something like 405 million euros of these products across the border, compared to 445 million of the Germans but unlike them, whose exports increased by 37% in the decade, ours grew by as much as 47%” highlights Denis Pantini, Agro-food Manager of Nomisma.
The United States represent the second outlet market for our exports of these products and that together with Germany, UK and France absorb two thirds of the total export of this category, demonstrating the strategic nature of this market for the economic sustainability of the fabric underlying production.
“From the elaborations of Federvini's Wine & Spirits Observatory by Mediobanca together with Nomisma, it emerges that, beyond the Italian multinationals that operate in the US - and therefore are only affected by duties for the direct export part - there is a group of medium-small companies, with a turnover of over 10 million euro, which emplos around 2,300 people and develop investments of around 48 million euro", says Gabriele Barbaresco, Mediobanca's Area Studies Director.
