US duties, the status of the art. While Eu delegation flies to Washington to negotiate again

The “red-hot blade” of 30% Us tariffs announced by Trump on European products starting August 1 cuts deep into the “butter” of a divided Eu, once again split on how to respond. Some countries, like Italy and Germany, are calling for calm and continued dialogue with the United States, while others, such as France and Spain, are pushing for a more forceful reaction. Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing, and, if the Eu has postponed its countermeasures against duties, with a new list of 72 billion euros in retaliatory tariffs on Usa products which are currently under review by member states, with the European Commission which has reiterated its intention not to act before August 1st, in these hours, we learn from Brussels, the Eu technical delegation is travelling to Washington to continue to negotiate on a dossier that, as Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti recently pointed out, is far broader and more complex than it appears. It includes not only tariff and bureaucratic barriers between the two blocs but also general taxation, big tech taxation, and more. Naturally, the Italian agri-food sector, which in the Usa has one of its fundamental market starting from Italian wine, for which, the States are foreign partner No. 1 overall (with 1.8 billion euros out of 8.2 billion euros in 2024, and 513.3 million euros out of 1.8 billion euros in the first three months of 2025, according to official Istat data) is watching developments with concern, because if a duty at 10% tariff, in place since April, has already complicated matters, according to major trade organizations, producers, and consortia, a 30% duty would effectively amount to an “embargo”.
All Italian wine and agricultural associations are advocating for dialogue and have written to or urged the government and national institutions to represent this position at the EU level. Similarly, the US wine sector, with various producers and trade associations, which wrote to President Donald Trump, underlining how European wine generates a surplus of over 19 billion dollars for American economy through wine trade and restoration calling for a “Reciprocal & Fair-Trade Agreement on Wine” with the European Union.
While waiting to understand what will happen in the next decisive days , from now to August 1st. The stakes are high for Italy, which exports 63 billion euros to the Usa, of which 30 billion euros “refer to sectors directly affected by the duties. The first estimates indicate that the immediate impact of the tariff could result in direct losses of up to 9 billion euros, while considering also the consequences on supply chains, margins, investments and consumption, the total estimated impact could range between 18 and 22 billion euros over the 2025–2026 period”, explains an elaboration by ReportAziende.it, carried out basing on Istat-Comext and Eurostat data updated in 2024. With the most affected sectors, underlines the analysis, including pharmaceuticals (about 18% of Italy’s pharmaceutical exports, or 13.7 billion dollars out of a total 75 billion dollars of the sector), general mechanics (6.8% of the sector’s value), automotive (5.5% of national exports and 14.7% of global sector exports), industrial machinery (exposure between 5.0% and 6.8%), and wine and beverages with a 4.4% of Italian exports, and not only.