Meloni to fly to US for tariff talks with Trump before meeting Vance in Rome.

Meloni said last week that she would propose to Trump “the possibility of eliminating reciprocal tariffs on existing industrial products with the ‘zero for zero’ formula”.

The Italian premier will be the first European leader to meet Trump after he announced 20 per cent tariffs on EU imports, a move which the US president subsequently suspended for 90 days.

In an initial response, Meloni said she considered the tarrifs a "wrong" move that did "not benefit either side", however she has since cautioned against "alarmism" and claimed it was "not the catastrophe that some are talking about".

Meloni, who has maintained close ties to the US president and was the only EU leader to attend his inauguration, also said: "The economies of Western nations are strongly interconnected, such incisive protectionist policies will end up damaging Europe as much as the United States".

Following her return to Italy after meeting Trump, Meloni will receive US vice president JD Vance at her Rome office on Friday 18 April, on the first day of his three-day visit to the country.

Details of the Rome visit are not yet known however it is speculated that Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, may visit the Vatican to mark Good Friday.

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