He says he is positive about a trade deal with Europe
Italy’s economic and trade relationship with the United States: A strategy for achieving 2% spending threshold with the Italian prime minister in the coming parliamentary term
“The best strategy has been to be very circumspect: Get there, get the meeting, get the photo opportunity,” Piccoli said. “If she is able to come back, and give a sense of how Washington wants to frame future relations on trade, defense and Ukraine policy, that would be a huge win.”
Anything Italy can do to acknowledge that the prime minister has a fiercly political coalition, similar to what many Italian prime ministers have done in the past, is going to be very helpful to her goal of reaching 2% spending threshold.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of growing concerns over global uncertainty generated by the escalating tariff wars. Italy’s growth forecast for this year has already been slashed.
“All in all, I think she will focus on the very strong economic and trade relations that Italy has with the United States, not just in terms of exports, but also services and energy,” said Antonio Villafranca, vice president of the ISPI think tank in Milan. “For example, Italy could even consider importing more gas from the U.S.”
Italy maintains a 40 billion euro trade surplus with the United States, its largest with any country, fueled by Americans’ appetite for Italian sparkling wine, foodstuffs like Parmigiano Reggiano hard cheese and Parma ham, and Italian luxury fashion. These are all sectors critical to the Italian economy, and mostly supported by small- and medium-sized producers who are core center-right voters.
A Delicate Mission to Trump’s White House: Trade with the EU and the Challenge of Dealing With Its Primordial Anomalies
“She has been very cautious,” said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at the London-based Teneo consultancy. “It’s what we need when we have a counterpart that is constantly changing.”
Meloni, who was tapped to speak for the European Union, is the first European leader to meet with Trump at the White House since he announced — and then delayed — a 20% tariff on exports from the EU.
The pause has raised some hopes for negotiations, and Meloni’s margins for progress are more in gaining clarity about Trump’s goals rather than making concessions, experts say.
“It is a very delicate mission,” said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Center think tank in Brussels. “There is the whole trade agenda, and while she’s not officially negotiating, we know that Trump likes to have this kind of informal exchange, which in a sense is a negotiation. It’s a lot on her plate.
President Trump was optimistic about a deal before the end of the 90-day pause in global tariffs. Most countries now face just 10 percent tariffs on imports to the U.S., rather than 20 percent or more.
The European Union says its annual trade with the rest of the world is about 1.6 trillion euros.
Earlier Thursday, a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the massive trade deficit the U.S. runs with EU members, including Italy, “bothers the president.”
He will want to level the plane, just as he did with other trading partners, the official said.
“I think we need to talk and find a way to grow together, and I think the US is reliable when it comes to trading with us,” she said. If I did not think it was a reliable partner, I wouldn’t be here.
