Insights | China should not care about U.S. tariffs: former Italian official

By Gong Hongyu, Zhang Dongfang

(ECNS) -- When western companies want to do business with China, they find it difficult because their own governments create problems for this, said Michele Geraci, an economist and former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.

Geraci made the remarks in an exclusive interview with China News Network during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025 held in South China's Hainan Province, in response to tariffs imposed by the U.S. government on other countries.

He noted that the tension caused by tariffs from the western governments is not between East and West but between western governments and western companies. "It's like an intra-country problem."

Western government officials and CEOs rarely show up at the same time. He cited examples, noting that when former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken or former U.S. President Joe Biden were in office, they rarely included corporate executives in their delegations during official visits—a pattern similarly observed in Germany and other Western nations, he explained.

Traveling with government officials is "a liability" for these business executives, said Geraci.

"Two days ago, I asked Tim Cook from Apple whether he had come with Joe Biden before? He said 'No, never.' He comes alone," Geraci said.

He believed that China should not care about these tariffs. "China did ignore it really in practice, because it knows that maybe this tariff will hurt the U.S. economy more."

China has given all the least developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, becoming the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a significant measure, Geraci noted when talking about China's opening up policy.

He called it a very good signal that China wants to allow those countries to export more products to it.

Geraci mentioned the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade deal to date, which covers 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its five free trade agreement partners, namely China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, saying China is making progress in opening up.

"My feeling is that China now pays less and less attention to the West and develops more," he said.

Geraci drew an analogy to a Chinese-style rolling dining table when talking about the investment of Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD in Hungary, saying that "You don't have to eat everything. You eat what you like."

"Share is you pick what is good for you and that's what China is doing," he said.

Some countries wish to do business with China, and China welcomes them; others don't, and that's fine too, he added. "Very simple, very easy."