Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Margherita Stancati, The Wall Street Journal 4 min Read 17 Apr 2025, 10:30 am Ist Meloni, with Trump ties, seeking trading transaction for EU, staring tariff conversations and US demands to energy and technology. Summary The Italian Prime Minister is the first European leader to meet the US president as he interrupted the rates above 10% for most trading partners. Rome – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni feels the weight of the moment as she prepares to negotiate her chances with President Trump after interrupting the rates above 10%. Meloni has tried to light up about her mission as the first European leader to meet with Trump in Washington since ‘Liberation Day’. “As you can suggest, I don’t feel pressure at all,” Meloni said, addressing a crowd of entrepreneurs and business leaders in Rome on Tuesday night. The Italian Prime Minister is better placed to convince Trump to easily go on Europe than almost any of her peers. Meloni and Trump share a conservative, anti-woke worldview and Trump loves her, and calls her a ‘fantastic woman’. Meloni, a friend of Elon Musk, was the only European leader to attend the president’s inauguration. Yet it is a scary task. Meloni’s meeting with Trump on Thursday will test whether she can use this ideological affinity to ensure a breakthrough for Italy and the European Union. Conversations to renegotiate the world’s largest trading relationship promises to be long and potentially controversial. Trump repeatedly pointed to the EU and accused of “driving us on the trade.” To abandon the president, the 27-country block drives the possibility of bringing mutual rates for industrial goods to zero, an offer that Trump has reused so far. Meloni’s broader goal is to keep the US firmly in Europe and position herself as a potential bridge between Western allies. As the rhetoric of Washington became increasingly antagonistic, the Italian Prime Minister tried to keep the continent in Trump’s good grace, and urged her European colleagues to avoid confrontation. Despite her strong support for Ukraine, she has carefully avoided the Trump administration’s approach with Russia. She has voiced against plans led by the United Kingdom and France to send the peace troops to Ukraine possible without the US participation in response to Washington’s pressure, Italy indicates that it will increase military spending to at least 2% of its budget to reach its obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “We made a political decision in response to requests from America, which is legal,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said this weekend. “If the United States says,” We alone cannot be responsible for Europe’s safety, “they are right.” European countries plan to increase military spending to reduce military dependence on the US after Trump doubts about whether America’s long -standing security guarantees will last. Meloni in Washington is likely to indicate that some of the spending in the US, where Italian companies – including defense conglomerate Leonardo and shipbuilder Fincantieri – also have manufacturing locations. Italy is also open to raise its US gas imports, another case on which Trump is pressing Europe. In talks with Trump, Meloni is also expected to make the case for the EU’s zero-for-zero tariff offer in Washington, but this is unlikely. Conversations between EU and US trade officers are making little progress, and there are significant posters. In response to Trump’s decision to interrupt the so-called reciprocal rates-which include 20% blanket charges on European goods-the EU has stopped a planned set of countermeasures that targeted US goods ranging from soybeans to motorcycles. However, a 10% baseline rate on all imports and 25% sector -specific rates on cars, steel and aluminum are in place. Trump is considering additional global rates, including pharmaceutical products. The EU has made it clear that retaliation rates are still in the maps. “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in,” EU head Ursula von der Leyen said, who is now coordinating with Meloni on her journey. Trump has made it clear that the falling rates alone will not lower it. He also complained about non-tariff barriers, ranging from strict food safety regulations to added tax on goods and services to which European countries are unlikely to compromise. Trump wants the block to be committed to buying large amounts of US energy to reduce EU’s trade surplus with US Europe, selling more goods to the US than it buys, but the opposite is true when it comes to services. The EU’s surplus for goods trading with the US was $ 236 billion last year; It was $ 132 billion with services included for 2023, the last available figure of the Department of Trade. This is something that Trump has left out of his tariff calculations, but that European officials may use trade negotiations. The EU has delayed a decision to delay US technology companies, Apple and Meta, under the rules for digital competition. The US has complained that such fines are not on -official tax on large US technical firms. Write to Margherita Stancati on Margherita.stancati@wsj.com, catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Europe #Donald Trump #Global Economy Mint Special
Meloni, Europe’s Trump whisperer, try her hand on rates
