Grants to Airbus: why Washington goes after Italian cheeses

French champagne, Scottish whiskey, British cashmere, German coffee or Spanish olive oil. The list of products covered by the new customs duties of 25% enacted by Washington, Wednesday, October 2, may seem logical. It targets the four associated countries within the Airbus consortium, which has been convicted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for receiving illegal subsidies. The United States, which defended Boeing's interests in this case, was granted the right to impose $ 7.5 billion in sanctions on Europe.

But the US administration has also attacked Italy, whose cheese exports should be taxed from 18 October. Parmesan cheese, pecorino romano and provolone will be the main Italian victims of the Trumpian appetite for customs duties. Including other food products taxed at European level by Washington and which are also exported by Italy, such as some yogurts or fruits, these new sanctions should cost between 500 million and 1 billion euros to Italy, according to the first estimates of the transalpine press.

The "Made in Italy" in danger ?

The "Made in Italy" is in danger, have shouted the Italian authorities to the announcement of these taxes. Above all, Rome was officially surprised to be struck as well as the four countries of the Airbus consortium. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio recalled that the country "was not concerned by this case" of illegal subsidies and took advantage of the visit to Italy of his American counterpart, Mike Pompeo, to call Washington to "make some efforts".

Italy believes that it is much more affected than other European countries affected by US taxes. Rome ensures that the Italian cheese industry is more dependent on American consumers than French wine or German ham. After France, the United States is the second largest market for Parmesan, Grana Padano and others. In 2018, Italy exported 31.5 million kilograms of cheese to the United States worth 272.7 million euros, according to data from the Assolatte, the main union of the dairy industry.

"Customs duties above 20% are unbearable for our exports to the United States," warned before the announcement of sanctions Cesare Baldrighi, president of the Grana Padano Protection Consortium. Professionals in the sector are particularly concerned about Parmesan cheese. To obtain the precious name of the appellation of origin, one has to submit to a very long list of criteria, which means that there are just over 400 small producers in Italy. If the US market were to close, the entire industry - one of the symbols of Italian food culture - would be threatened, says the Financial Times. To sell their stock, producers would be forced to lower prices, which would be financially difficult for generally small companies with few financial reserves.

A question of naming

For Cesare Baldrighi, Donald Trump benefits from his victory in the Airbus file to launch a parallel assault on the controlled appellations. "In fact, what the Americans want is to sell American parmesan cheese in Europe," he told Corriere della Sera daily. That would be the reason why Italy is on the list of countries hit by the new customs duties.

The US administration has indeed been the subject of intense pressure for several months from the lobby of US cheese manufacturers in favor of sanctions against their European competitors. In May, for example, the union sent an open letter to Donald Trump claiming that the EU was abusing "geographical indications" to protect appellations that, like "parmesan", would have long since become part of everyday language. They claim that Wisconsin's "parmesan" (the main US state where this cheese is made) has nothing to envy of its Italian counterpart and should not be banned from selling on European soil.

For the Italians, the attack on their cheese is in fact only the first step in a more general Washington offensive against the European system for the protection of geographical names. In April, the US president had also acknowledged on Twitter that if the WTO came to the United States in the conflict between Airbus and Boeing, he would not hesitate to attack all areas where 'Europe' has flouted the United States commercially. Manufacturers of Norman Camembert, Parma ham or even Bavarian white pudding just have to stand.