ROME (Reuters) -Italy said some U.S. customs authorities have requested tariffs above the rate agreed with the European Union on imports such as Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses, and that it was seeking guarantees the lower figure will be applied.
The United States and European Union last week locked in a framework trade deal reached in July that includes a 15% U.S. tax on most imports from the 27-nation EU.
“Italy has always supported a frank and constructive dialogue with the United States and will continue to do so by insisting on the proper application of the agreement,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We will protect our businesses, our workers, and our manufacturing excellence by every means at our disposal.”
The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium said in a separate statement that some of its exports to the U.S. had been wrongly subjected to extra customs charges.
“The Foreign Ministry has requested guarantees on the correct application of the EU-US agreement on tariffs because a duty exceeding 15% was applied at customs on some batches of Parmigiano Reggiano”, consortium president Nicola Bertinelli said.
The U.S. Embassy press office in Rome did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Italy has raised the issue with the U.S. Embassy and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade in Brussels, as well as alerting the Italian Embassy in Washington, the foreign ministry added.
(Writing by Francesca Piscioneri; additional reporting by Elisa Anzolin in Milan; editing by Keith Weir and Mark Heinrich)
