Italian Exports to US Drop 21.1% in August Amid Tariff Impact

Rome: Italian exports to the United States experienced a significant decline in August, falling by 21.1% compared to the same period in 2024, as reported by Istat on Thursday. This downturn coincided with the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on European Union goods.

According to Ansa News Agency, the national statistics agency also indicated that overall Italian exports decreased by 1.1% in monetary terms year-on-year for August. In addition to the reduction in exports to the US, there were notable decreases in trade with Turkey, which saw a drop of 25.9%, and China, which experienced a 16.3% decline. However, exports to several European countries showed an upward trend, with increases to France (+20.6%), Spain (+9.4%), the Netherlands (+13.5%), the United Kingdom (+7.3%), and Belgium (+8.8%).

Istat further reported that exports were down 2.7% in August when compared to July, while imports experienced a 3.7% decline on a month-on-month basis. Despite these challenges, Italy managed to maintain a trade surplus of 2.050 billion euros in August, with 172 million euros attributed to EU countries and 1.878 billion euros to non-EU countries. When excluding energy, the trade surplus reached 5.481 billion euros.