Mattarella in Beijing: “Rebalancing is necessary in trade relations between Italy and China”

“Yesterday we registered full harmony and convergence of assessments with President Xi.” The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said this while meeting the President of the National People’s Assembly Zhao Leji in Beijing. “There is a growth in the desire for mutual collaboration. An ancient relationship which – added the Head of State – today finds a full and collaborative current declination on the political level and on the international vision regarding the desire for peace, multilateralism, of openness in economic relations. This is why this visit is very important for me.”

To confirm these words, Mattarella recalled that his visit follows that of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by only a few months: “And such a close presence of the top leaders of our country is completely unusual. This shows how important it is for us to increasingly develop relations with China.”

A vision later confirmed by Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang: “In the space of more than three months, Prime Minister Meloni and the President have respectively made two visits to China, demonstrating great attention and an active Italian desire to further investigate the reactions between China and Italy which are highly appreciated by China”, said Li Qiang when meeting Mattarella. “President Mattarella is a statesman of great reputation in Italy and a long-standing friend of the Chinese people. He has always paid attention and support to the cause of friendship between China and Italy and has made important contributions to promoting the development of bilateral relations” , he added.

In this regard, the Head of State underlined with the Chinese Prime Minister the need for a rebalancing in commercial relations: “We have an exchange which in the space of six years, from 2016 to 2022, has doubled from 38 billion to 74 billion in 2022,” Mattarella recalled, “with two observations: the first that it is still below potential and therefore the desire to increase the trade flow; the other is the need for a rebalancing in the development of import-export commercial relationships. As with investments, we care very much about Chinese investments in Italy and we encourage Italians in China who have grown very quickly, reaching 15 billion in 2023. We hope that they will also the Chinese ones can grow quickly and these too are below their potential.” President Sergio Mattarella underlined this when he met Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing.

Also with the President of the Republic is Foreign Minister Tajani, who was optimistic about the negotiations on EU duties on e-cars made in China. Tajani said he had discussed the issue with his counterparts. “We are going in the right direction, the one we hoped for,” he added. The compromise hypothesis could be to “find a minimum and a maximum price”.