While official figures suggest Italy, one of the world's leading exporters of gold and silver jewellery, is starting to emerge from a severe downturn seen in the past two years, manufacturers say unfavourable customs duties and import regimes are muddying the path to full recovery.
Figures produced by the European Commission show that duty on EU products imported into China stands at between 20 and 35 percent, and 5.8 percent into the United States.
By contrast, Chinese and U.S. products imported into the EU carry a import tax of 2.5 percent.
"We are importing Chinese jewellery with around 2 percent duty, we have to pay 38 percent to export there -- how can we grow out of crisis?" said Riccardo Renai, managing director of Annamaria Cammilli, a Florence-based jewellery manufacturer and exporter.
"This is the heart of the problem. We are fighting with rules that don't help us."
Italy has long been pushing for a cut in U.S. import duties on European Union jewellery, which put Italian manufacturers at a disadvantage with their non-EU rivals on the world's biggest jewellery markets.
Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the European Commission for Industry and Business, told reporters he would be working to defend European products. But jewellers had little faith in seeing a positive outcome from the process.
"There's no chance for a change to duties," said Franco Minonne of Bonato Milano, a Milan-based jewellery manufacturer, whose main markets are the United States and Middle East.
"We can complain but there's no way they will change. It should be the same for everyone. You need local partners," he added.
One of the Italy's top manufacturers of luxury jewellery, who declined to be named, has already found a way around China's duties.
"(China's duties) are so high that our important clientele prefer to buy in Singapore and other countries where the credibility of the jewellers is higher," he said, adding that a better strategy was opening a marketing company where samples could be bought, allowing customers to purchase outside of China.
"I will open in China under the condition that China observes the WTO rules," he said. (Reuters)
