United States trade tariffs on goods from European Union countries would weaken the North Atlantic Alliance, Italy's head of state Sergio Mattarella told US vice-president Mike Pence during talks in Rome on Friday.
Nato is not just a military alliance but above all "a political community united by shared values" that prizes economic freedom and free trade, Mattarella said during the talks which were also attended by Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio.
Translatlantic ties need to be strengthened and a trade war triggered by tariffs would risk weakening the "current friendship and solidarity" existing between the two sides of the Atlantic, Mattarella argued.
Mattarella's remarks came after US president Donald Trump in media interviews at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday threatened to slap tariffs of up to 25% on the EU's auto sector if the bloc does not agree to a trade deal with the US, raising the prospect of a tit-for-tat transatlantic trade war.
