16 February 2022 “The recovery of Italy and the United States and the record data on bilateral trade in 2021 means that we can look towards 2022 with optimism, paying due attention to the geopolitical context and critical factors such as inflation pressures”. This was part of the address given by Italian Ambassador Mariangela Zappia to managers of the main Italian groups operating in the United States who met in Washington; she also ensured the support of the Embassy and the entire Italian economic system in the country.
The Ambassador referred to recent data from the US Department of Commerce which showed 19.4% growth in bilateral trade in 2021. She noted in particular the increase in Italian product exports to the United States, up 23.4% on 2020 and 6.5% on 2019. This data confirms the key position of the United States, source of over half the net Italian trade surplus with foreign countries, our main commercial partner outside the European Union and third in the world. The Ambassador said “the Italian government helped generate this trend and supports it with innovative instruments like the Pact for Export launched in 2020 and the “beIT” national branding campaign launched last December by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to promote “Made in Italy” in the American market and 25 other foreign markets.
The relaunch of EU-US relations will help further boost trade and investments between Italy and the Unities States, including in the economic area – by overcoming certain tariff disputes, the start-up of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) and the relaunch of the Energy Council – along with the near-shoring and re-shoring trends of chains of value and the transformation of the Italian economy initiated with the PNRR (national recovery and resilience plan). The Ambassador continued by stating “sustainability and innovation, two areas in which Italy has much to offer” were priorities in the Italian economic system actions in the United States.
Presentations by the managers pointed to a highly positive picture of Italian business in the United States, where record numbers were attained in all sectors. Demand for Italian products is extremely high and growing, albeit in the face of systemic limitations such as energy costs, logistics difficulties, bottlenecks in the supply chain and a lack of specialised labour. Against challenges such as decarbonisation, the energy transition, the “great resignation”, salary increases, movement towards e-commerce and changes in consumption, factors such as training, digitalisation, size growth and investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence appear to be common priorities in all sectors.
