by Alessio Cuel –
In an interview given to Corriere della Sera last July 30, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto expresses himself peremptorily, among other topics, on the “Belt and Road Initiative”, which is expected to tacitly renew or expire during Next year.
The Sino-Italian trade agreement, signed in 2019 by the Conte I government, was the subject of profound discussions within the majority, regarding the possibility of renewing it, and therefore of continuing in the direction traced by the then “yellow-green” government of appeasement of relations with Beijing, or to leave it behind.
The second hypothesis, also given the decisive pro-Atlantist imprinting strengthened by the recent Meloni-Biden bilateral agreement, seemed to prevail and it is Crosetto himself who clarifies this point, identifying the weaknesses of the memorandum signed by Conte.
In particular, Crosetto argues, “the choice to join the Silk Road was an improvised and wicked act, made by the government of Giuseppe Conte, which led to a double negative result. We have exported a load of oranges to China, they have tripled their exports to Italy in three years. The most ridiculous thing then was that Paris, without signing any treaties, in those days sold planes to Beijing for tens of billions.”
I data supplied by the Economic Observatory of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation seem in fact to testify how the agreement has benefited China more than Italy. For Italy, exports grew slightly, from 13 billion euros in 2019 to 16.4 in 2022. On the contrary, China recorded an increase from 31.7 to 57.5 billion in the same period.
For the holder of the Palazzo Baracchini dicastery, in other words, the decision (the only case in the G7) to negotiate a similar agreement with Beijing was anomalous. At the same time, the non-renewal of the agreement, which to date remains the most credible hypothesis, should hopefully not cause repercussions on trade relations between the two countries, in the wake of the French case.
