Despite the recent global problems with aggressive tariffs, trade can be a great promoter of trust. The’s the opinion of Valentino Valentini, Italy's Vice Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, talking to CGTN Europe’s Li Jianhua.
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00:00Italy's Deputy Minister for Enterprises has told CGTN that Rome is committed to an open market,
00:12but says cooperation with China must be fair and balanced.
00:17Valentino Valentini spoke to CGTN's Li Jianhua, as Beijing and the EU mark 50 years of diplomatic relations.
00:23The relationship between our two countries has always been characterized by a very strong trade by also very strong trust.
00:33For the Italian companies, of course, the Chinese market is important, A, because of its size, B, because of its complexity,
00:41because it's a mature market and also because it has a worldwide expansion.
00:46At the same time, of course, we are very keen, as the Ministry for Made in Italy, to protect the intellectual property
00:54and to protect from what is one of the greatest negative impacts that we have in Italy that comes from falsification of the Made in Italy brand.
01:05And China is not only a market for Italy anymore, and many Italian companies have outsourced portions of their manufacturing to China, actually.
01:15The fashion industry, especially, is heavily reliant on global supply chain.
01:20And do you think that global geopolitics, the tensions are affecting the supply chains of Made in Italy?
01:27Made in Italy is not where things are made, but it's how things are made.
01:33The substantial part of the product, be the creativity, be certain manufacturing processes, have to be made in that part.
01:4360% of that has to be Italian, 40% can come from all over the world.
01:48Well, that's what everybody is doing.
01:50As you know, Italy was in the part of the Silk Road, came out of the Silk Road.
01:55The Silk Road belonged to that skewed kind of situation.
01:58It was done by the government that did that for ideological reasons.
02:03We're very much happy to be on your market, but we don't appreciate lots of cheap Chinese not regulated products coming to ours.
02:12We set the rules, and I think that if we respect the rules, the Chinese are perfectly able to be very competitive.
02:18And it's very much of a balancing act for Italy, isn't it?
02:22And you said Italy is embedded in the European Union.
02:25So it has to balance its national interest and also the interest of the European Union, and also its relations with China.
02:35It's exactly like that.
02:36You put it right.
02:37We are a trading nation.
02:39One third, roughly, of our GDP comes from export.
02:44You understand that Italy can only survive and thrive in an open market at the same time.
02:51Of course, within the European Union, we defend our interest, and rather than defend, we pursue our interest.
02:58Italy can help in finding, like you said, the right balance or the harmonious relationship that the world needs.
03:09The harmonious relationship or the common ground between the two countries and sustainability is a major pillar of Italy's economic strategy
03:19and is where Italy and China can possibly find common ground.
03:24Italy was one of the countries that vote is full, imposing additional tariffs on Chinese-made EVs.
03:32How do you think that could impact Italy's green transition efforts?
03:37We were part of those because we felt at one point, and I'll have to be straightforward again,
03:43that part of the production was subsidized and it's part of leveling the playing field.
03:48Does Italy subsidize its EV sector?
03:52No, unfortunately, no.
03:54Not at all.
03:54We don't, and within the European Union system is the European Union, the Commission,
04:00that acts for all the member states in terms of foreign trade policy.
04:07So none of the EU countries subsidize their EV sectors?
04:13Not to the extent of others.
04:15I mean, there might be subsidies, of course.
04:17It would be hypercritical to say there's no state aid.
04:22It's the level sometimes that's too high.
04:24Or even without the state aid, sometimes there's such an imbalance that you have to produce,
04:32you have to protect your products.
04:33And what is complicating the situation?
04:36Global geopolitics right now is Trump's return to the White House,
04:40and he has threatened sweeping tariffs on the US traditional allies, including the European Union, Italy.
04:47And how do you think that would impact its least economy?
04:52Paris exists, as I said, always existed, smaller, bigger.
04:55There are kind of adjustment mechanisms that we have in the world economy in many sectors.
05:00If they become too much for too long, they can stifle completed development.
05:06But if they're raised high for a certain amount of time and then brought down to reasonable levels again,
05:13we might be hopeful that it's just a temporary adjustment we go through.
05:19It has to be temporary, hopefully an adjustment,
05:22hopefully we find ways to prevent the other perspective,
05:27which would run the risk of being negative for everybody.