On behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Maria Tripodi, participated in Warsaw at the informal joint EAC Trade – Competitiveness, under the Polish Presidency. The items on the agenda were the following: the alignment between national industrial policies and the EU trade policy, transatlantic trade relations and value chains for the integration of candidate countries into the Single Market.
The Undersecretary highlighted: “The EU’s external dimension is increasingly relevant. We need to ensure coherence and balance between trade and industrial policies to protect companies’ competitiveness on international markets and the attractiveness of the single market as a trading partner. In this context, the need to maintain an open and constructive dialogue with the United States becomes even more urgent.”
“The economic and trade relations between the USA and the EU are deep, extensive and inextricable”, she said, recalling Minister Tajani’s words that Italy would be the best ambassador for dialogue with the USA within the EU. A dialogue that was promptly initiated by the Italian government, with the recent visits to the US by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the contacts between Minister Tajani and his counterpart Marco Rubio. She added: “The potential for collaboration with the United States is immeasurably greater than any divisions. For this reason, we must continue to maintain a pragmatic, constructive and open approach with the new Trump Administration, working with American partners to identify common ground as soon as possible and defuse possible tariff actions.”
Finally, on the topic of the integration of candidate countries into European value chains, the Undersecretary underlined the importance of gradual integration into the Single Market as a tool to accompany candidate countries towards full membership, with particular attention paid to the Western Balkans.