Getting out of the tariff rant. Orsini, president of Confindustria, speaks.

And so here we are. The tariffs have arrived . They hurt less than they could have , as the European stock markets tell us, which yesterday suffered no major shocks (Frankfurt -1.02 percent, Paris -0.43 percent, Milan +0.1 percent). They hurt more than they would have if they hadn't been there (if you get one slap instead of five, it's still one slap). They hurt Europe, they hurt Italy, they hurt businesses, they hurt trade, they hurt exports . But if there's anything that can hurt even more than the tariffs, it's looking at Trump's axe with a look of desperation, with a posture of depression, with a whining attitude. And so, yes, there's no doubt, Trump's tariffs are there to testify to a political victory—let's see if it's an economic one—for the American president. The scene of taxpayers choosing to raise their thumbs up just steps from Trump's golf course in Scotland to thank Tariff Man for not giving them a hard time is halfway between surreal and self-abasement. And once it's clear that Trump's "kiss my ass" formula has found fertile ground—not that there were many options—the next step, dutiful and necessary, is to try to figure out how to proceed, what to do, what to think, how to act , to prevent America's slaps from turning into depressive immobility.

Emanuele Orsini, president of Confindustria, has chosen to join the PSL party: worries without complaint . Orsini's concerns are evidenced by his words, delivered yesterday morning to Il Foglio. His concerns center first and foremost on a number: 22.6 billion . "The twenty-two billion," Orsini tells us, " coincide with the negative trade balance for our businesses. It's a huge hole, a real problem, a concrete problem. The decline will be sharp in machinery, appliances, and vehicles . Manufacturing will suffer. Of course, it could have been much worse; 15 percent tariffs are what we basically expected, but the truth is that if we look at the other tariffs imposed by Trump around the world, there is a homogeneity, and no country is more punished than the others ."

"We're all starting from the same starting blocks. But to avoid falling further behind, as Europe and as Italy, in those blocks, we must get moving, roll up our sleeves, and figure out how to overcome those gaps that could leave us lagging behind other competitors." Saying that Europe needs to shake things up in this case isn't just a rhetorical exercise but is linked to a series of priorities on the table. "Forcibly intervening in European bureaucracy means being able to align ourselves with American regulatory and administrative standards, that is, eliminating some of the redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping procedures between European and national institutions. In this sense, if the European Union were to reduce the burden of bureaucracy to the level of the United States, European productivity would increase by up to 6.7 percent."

Orsini also calls for decisive action on the ETS (European Emissions Trading System) to prevent the ecological transition from turning into an economic trap for Italian and European industry . But above all, he urges Italy to lead a crucial battle in Europe: protecting ourselves from Trump's tariffs with the same force we used to protect ourselves from Covid . Orsini doesn't go so far as to say Trump is a virus, but tariffs certainly are. "We need a European-level industrial policy plan built along similar lines to those used during Covid, changing spending caps and derogating from deficit treaties . Protecting European industry is an absolute priority. Addressing efficiency, bureaucracy, and competitiveness is necessary but not sufficient. We need to make a leap and compete with the United States with facts. They want to attract investors? We can't be outdone: we're doing everything we need to do to make Europe more attractive. Now, not tomorrow ." Does this also apply to Italy? Of course, says Orsini. Giorgia Meloni has worked with dedication, care, and commitment in recent months to try to contain the impact of tariffs. What Italy needs now is to forcefully dismantle its internal self-tariffs. Bureaucracy, first and foremost. But there's more. One priority is to redirect unspent funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to investments . A second priority is to create the conditions to provide incentives to small, less productive businesses to pursue mergers. A third priority is obviously energy, the costs of which are a burden for Italian businesses, and I'm happy that the Prime Minister has promised us by September, no later than the latest, to reduce energy costs to truly the levels of other European countries. That is: no longer 100 megawatt hours, but around 60-65 euros.

In recent weeks, Meloni has promised to address the decoupling of gas and energy prices, and bringing it to the level Orsini indicated would be a success. However, the president of Confindustria, in his reasoning, offers another valuable insight into what Italy could do to transform Trump's tariffs into shock therapy to make our country more attractive. Orsini emphasizes "an immediate acceleration of free trade agreements with Mercosur, ASEAN, Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan," and frankly, Orsini says, "it's unclear what politicians are waiting for to greenlight these agreements." Orsini considers strengthening ICE, SACE, and SIMEST crucial to help Italian companies become even more competitive around the world. But the major issue affecting Europe, and Italy as well, and one also tied to the euro's strengthening against the dollar—because while it's true that a weak dollar doesn't help exports to America, it's also true that a stronger euro, as the president of Confindustria continues, "allows Europe to be perceived as more stable, more secure, and therefore potentially more attractive"—concerns the strategies needed to replace the mindset of whining with that of recovery. And the key word is one: competitiveness.

Orsini's proposal, verbatim, to make Italy more competitive, and therefore more attractive, in the short term is to "extend the SEZ model used for the Southern regions to the whole of Italy." The single SEZ (Special Economic Zone for Southern Italy), which came into force in 2024, is a reform that merged the eight previous regional SEZs in Southern Italy into a single, large, subsidized area covering all eight southern regions: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sicily, and Sardinia. The idea is simple and ambitious: transform the entire South into a large free zone for investment, simplifying administrative procedures, reducing time, and creating a competitive and attractive environment for Italian and foreign businesses. According to Orsini, "the single SEZ has already mobilized €28 billion in investments, compared to just €4.8 billion in public spending, with the estimated creation of approximately 35,000 jobs." The core of the Single ZES's operation lies in one key word: derogation . The mechanism allows municipalities interested in establishing production facilities within the ZES to operate in derogation from the standard timeframes and procedures for issuing permits (urban planning, landscape, environmental, and construction) through the creation of a fast-track administrative process, the adoption of a reduced tacit consent formula, a ZES commissioner with the power to act as a substitute in the event of local authorities' inaction, and a national digital one-stop shop that centralizes requests and monitors their progress. "A company wishing to invest shouldn't have to wait years for a response from ten different offices; it needs a single point of contact, clear deadlines, and, if necessary, a substitute intervention."

Orsini, probably thinking of some recent Italian case, says that efficiency should be considered a virtue, a positive element; "it shouldn't be criminalized." Orsini is obviously referring to the Milan case , but the theme is more general. If we want to face the Trumpian tariff season head-on, there are two paths. The first is constant complaining, uncontrollable uncertainty, and the search for scapegoats. The second is to roll up our sleeves, transform difficulties into opportunities, and start thinking not about what Europe's allies should do for us, but about what Europe and Italy could do for themselves without thinking about Trump. The tariffs, perhaps, will pass; efficiency, if it ever exists, will remain. Choosing which side to take shouldn't be so difficult. Tariffs hurt, inaction perhaps even more.

More on these topics: