ROME, April 3 — Producers of Italy’s famed Parmigiano Reggiano said Thursday that US tariffs on their cheese make “no sense”, saying it was not in competition with American parmesan.
Nicola Bertinelli, head of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, said President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 20 per cent tariff on all EU goods meant US duties on their products would rise from 15 to 35 per cent.
“Imposing duties on a product like ours only increases the price for American consumers, without truly protecting local producers. It is a choice that harms everyone,” he said in a statement.
The United States is the consortium’s primary market outside Italy, representing 22.5 per cent of the total export share.
But Parmigiano Reggiano makes up only about seven per cent of the US market for hard cheeses, Bertinelli said.
Bertinelli said a price increase would not necessarily hit sales because Parmigiano Reggiano is a premium product sold at more than double the price of local parmesan, and shoppers are already willing to pay more.
But he said it “makes no sense to apply duties to a product like ours that is not in real competition with American parmesan”.
Local hard cheeses “are different products that have different positioning, production standards, quality and costs”, he said.
“It is therefore absurd to hit a niche product like Parmigiano Reggiano to protect the American economy.”
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, additional tariffs of 25 per cent pushed up prices of Parmigiano Reggiano but the duties were suspended in 2021 and “did not create problems for us in terms of sales”, Bertinelli added. — AFP