ITALY AND CHINA

Italy and China Trade Agreement

Author : Matteo Aristei

Translated by : Matteo Aristei

January 2019

In the last summer, the Ministers of Economic Affairs Giovanni Tria went in Beijing, China in order to establish new agreements . Several trade and financial agreements were signed .

Italy and China established their diplomatic missions in 1970 with the Bilateral Relationship .

From the economic point of view and between countries of European Union, Italy is the 5th China ’s trade partner . Italy imports fabric and clothing from China while this last imports mainly industrial machines and pharmaceutical instruments from the Italian peninsula . Between 1979 and 2003, more than 2000 project were developed by Italian companies in China ; furthermore, the two countries signed contracts for the creation of new innovative technologies .

Italy and China are already in cooperation such as the Intergovernmental Committee Italy – China that was established in 2004, it is the organism for the coordination of bilateral relationships between the two countries, it has to connect administration with public and private entities of both countries and to supervise all the projects and economical agreements concerning Italy and China . Between these two countries there is also a military cooperation that was established after the Second World War . In July 1991 they signed an agreement for the research and the pacific use of the space and, year by year, this relation improved . In 2005 there was the first official visit in China by the Italian Chief of Defence Staff, this was requested by the Chinese Chief of Staff .

Moreover, Italy and China signed a cultural, scientific and technical cooperation agreement between the two countries and, regularly, there are cultural exchange every 2 – 4 years .

China is really willing to improve economical and financial agreements with Italy, and for this it has signed important agreements with the country .

From the financial point of view , the yuan ( the official Chinese currency ) will enter in the reserves portfolio of Bank of Italy . This is an investment made by Italy that concerns Chinese government bond . With this, our government helps China with the yuan ’s internationalization; furthermore Italy will be open to foreign financial markets .
There has also been talk about the Belt and Road Initiative, it is created by China for the development and the improvement of the cooperation with Europe and other countries . The Italian ’s gate will be Genoa and Trieste .

There has also been a green light to several trade cooperation : Deposit and Consignment has signed a preliminary agreement of cooperation with Bank of China, for exports and internationalization of Italian companies in China ; Fincantieri and China State Shipbuilding corporation have signed a memorandum for the enlargement of the industrial cooperation ; Snam has signed an agreement with State Grid International Development, creating a memorandum of understanding for new technologies and the reduction of CO2 emissions .

Sources :

- OICS
- China ( Wikipedia )
- Italy ( Wikipedia )
- Panorama
- IlSole24ore