Tariff policy contradicts NATO alliance - Mattarella

(ANSA) - Rome, November 12 - US tariff policy contradicts the NATO alliance, President Sergio Mattarella said Tuesday.
    "The role of NATO is fundamental," he said after receiving Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa at the Quirinale presidential palace.
    "The Alliance has for decades been a source of peace and security and that requires that every obstacle should be overcome and absorbed.
    "And tariffs policy is contradictory to the logic of the Atlantic Alliance".
    Great Italian cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino, Grana Padano and Gorgonzola were among the products hit as the 25% tariffs United States President Donald Trump has set on many EU goods kicked in on October 18.
    Italian spirits are also among the products getting pounded in the tariffs worth a total of 7.5 billion dollars.
    Farmers' association Coldiretti said the measures are set to cause a 20% drop in the sales of the agro-food products affected in the US.
    Premier Giuseppe Conte told a press conference after an EU summit in Brussels that "these (US) tariffs hurt, we wouldn't have wanted them, we had worked to try to make sure they did not come".
    He said the tariffs regarded other countries "for 94%, and only 6% concerns Italy, but they hurt us anyway.
    "We are already working on compensatory measures".
    US tariffs will cause an average fall in turnover for small and medium spirits producers of 20-25%, wine and spirits group Federvini said.
    Around 100 of these firms are worst exposed to the tariffs, it told ANSA.
    Exports to the US are worth around 163 million dollars, according to US customs, with a downward variation of 35%.
    Italy is the third biggest exporter of spirits to the States after France and Ireland.
    The new U.S. tariffs on EU products may have a major impact on the Italian economy even though they affect "a relatively limited quota of Italian exports to the United States" the Bank of Italy said.
    The central bank said that around 400 million euros worth of Italian exports are affected, but also sounded the alarm about the "indirect effect" of the tariffs.
    Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said the tariffs "increase uncertainty" and were a brake on the growth of trade.
    Trump told Mattarella at the White House that the US doesn't want to put tariffs on European cars because "it would destroy the German economy in particular but would also damage the Italian one," Trump's economic advisor Lawrence Kudlow told a seminar on US-Italian ties at the Italian embassy.
    "I'm glad he said it," said Kudrow.
    "I noticed because it's the first time I've heard him say so clearly".
    Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said the government was "against an escalation of tariffs (between the US and Italy) and we encourage negotiated solutions to avert measures that would damage both our economies".
    Fifteen international alcoholic beverage associations wrote a joint letter to the US administration and the European Commission asking for an immediate halt to new US tariffs on wines and spirits in European countries.