ROME, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Strategic support on Libya and the Mediterranean area, and protection of "made in Italy" food products from U.S. tariffs were the key goals of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's visit to the United States, Italian media reported on Monday.
The meeting between the two leaders was scheduled in Washington at 12 a.m. local time, to be followed by a press conference, Conte's office said in a statement.
For Conte, a 53-year-old lawyer and political novice, this was his first visit to the United States since he was appointed as the leader of Italy's new right-wing government in early June.
"Conte aims at getting Trump's support to create a 'permanent control room' between Italy and the United States in the Mediterranean on counter-terrorism, security, immigration, and most of all Libya," Ansa news agency reported citing sources from Conte's office.
Such coordination activity should involve foreign affairs and defence ministers from both sides, according to Ansa.
"Conte will openly ask president Trump to recognize Italy as a 'privileged interlocutor' of the United States over Libya, and as a point of reference within Europe," Turin-based La Stampa newspaper also reported.
The Italian prime minister's primary objective would be "to contain the geopolitical aims of French President Emmanuel Macron" over the war-torn northern African country, according to the report. It added that Trump's support may help Italy to successfully hold a conference on Libya in the next months, and lay down a "safer path towards elections involving all of the Libyan parties and factions from Tripoli to the Cyrenaica."
PROTECTION OF ITALY'S AGRIFOOD
A second crucial objective of Conte's ongoing visit to Washington would be to shield Italy's agrifood sector from U.S. tariffs, local media also reported on Monday.
"Conte wants to be sure U.S. tariffs will not touch the interests of Italian firms, and especially concerning those in the agrifood sector," Italy's leading newspaper Corriere della Sera wrote.
"For this reason, the Prime Minister has the intention of asking specific guarantees to Donald Trump," it added.
The agrifood indeed plays a crucial role in the Italian economy, being the second most important sector after the mechanical industry. Its turnover accounted for 11.3 percent of the country's gross domestic in 2016, according to Italy Trade agency citing ISTAT data.
As for the Italian-U.S. specific ties, the agrifood would cover about 10 percent of Italy's whole exports to the U.S. market, according to national farmers association Coldiretti.
Despite the recent rise in protectionist measures, the sector boosted its sales to the United States by some 4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, after exceeding a record high of 4 billion euros (4.67 billion U.S. dollars) in value last year, Coldiretti said in a statement on Monday.
As such, the president of the association Roberto Moncalvo praised Conte's will to raise the issue during talks with Trump.
According to a report issued by the National Institute for Services to Agricultural and Food Markets (ISMEA) earlier this month, Italian agrifood exports reached the record high of 41 billion euros in value in 2017. (1 euro=1.17 U.S. dollars)
