Back in Italy. Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will return to Italy next week.
- Following his participation in the Italy-China Business and Dialogue Forum in Verona last April, the official is setto meet with Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (with a portfolio that includes trade).
- He will also visit Adolfo Urso, Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy, who has been actively seeking a second car manufacturer in Italy, with Dongfeng Motor—a major Chinese state-owned automaker—being considered.
On the table. Among the proposals Minister Wang is expected to bring to Italy is a collaboration agreement between small and medium-sized enterprises and the creation of a Sino-Italian Industrial Park in Shanghai.
- Rumours suggest that an agreement may also be signed with Minister Tajani to revitalise the strategic global partnership between Italy and China, which the two countries aim to strengthen after the non-renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative.
EU-China consultations. Minister Wang’s visit to Italy comes amidst ongoing consultations between Brussels and Beijing over provisional tariffs imposed by the European Commission on electric vehicles produced in China.
- Should an agreement not be reached, EU member states may be required to confirm or reject the final tariffs for a five-year period this November. Individual tariffs applied to three Chinese manufacturers currently stand at 17.4% for BYD, 19.9% for Geely, and 37.6% for SAIC.
- Next week, Minister Wang is scheduled to meet Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of trade.
- Like Spain and France, Italy had initially expressed support for the tariffs. Asked whether Italy’s stance had changed, Minister Urso told Reuters on Wednesday that he expects a negotiated solution.
Waiting for Mattarella. Minister Wang’s visit to Rome follows a mission to Beijing in late July, during which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni signed an Action Plan to strengthen the Italy-China strategic global partnership for 2024-2027.
- It also precedes a visit by President Sergio Mattarella to China in November.
- The Italian government’s primary goal, as emphasised by Prime Minister Meloni, remains rebalancing economic relations, particularly in terms of trade and investment flows, following the non-renewal of the Belt and Road Initiative agreement.
Strategic discussions. At the Verona forum, four thematic working groups were open to businesses and associations, focusing on agritech, e-commerce, investment, and pharmaceuticals/biomedical sectors.
- These are considered strategic by various countries, particularly the United States, and there is a pressing need to reduce dependence on players like China.
- Meloni’s visit to Beijing also led to a cooperation agreement between the Italian Ministry for Enterprises and Madein Italy and the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, resulting in several memoranda of understanding between companies from both countries in strategic sectors such as green technology.
What’s going on? “Following the trip to Beijing, we requested that Prime Minister Meloni report to Parliament on the visit’s outcomes, along with a corresponding parliamentary debate,” said Senator Enrico Borghi of Italia Viva and member of the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (Copasir). “But the response was silence,” he continued.
- “Minister Urso, who, as Copasir chair in the previous legislature, shared concerns over Beijing’s strategic influence on European economies, is now rushing to China to open the doors of the Italian automotive sector to the Chinese Dragon. What’s going on? Is something being let back in through the window that was thrown out the door?” Borghi concluded.
