The Road to Trade Winds Europe/Eurasia: Milan, Italy
February 6, 2024
Isabella Cascarano is the Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Rome
This is the fourth post in a blog series about the different markets that will be featured during Trade Winds Europe/Eurasia.
This May, the U.S. Government’s largest annual trade mission—Trade Winds—is heading to Europe and Eurasia! Dozens of U.S. businesses of all shapes, sizes, and sectors will travel across six countries to strike deals with foreign buyers, distributors, and partners. They’ll be accompanied by ITA commercial diplomats and trade professionals who are experts across the continent. One of our early mission stops will be in Milan, Italy between May 9-10, 2024.
With the third-largest economy in the EU and eighth largest economy in the world, Italy is one of the United States’ strongest trading partners, with our total trade reaching $116.8 billion in 2022. A mature, sophisticated and competitive market, Italy offers significant opportunities for U.S. companies that produce innovative, cutting-edge solutions across a variety of sectors, ranging from advanced manufacturing to medical devices, to energy and environmental technologies.
U.S. companies seeking to enter or expand their presence in the Italian market may be interested in opportunities presented by the Government of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The NRRP is a multi-faceted strategic effort that aims to allocate nearly $200 billion to structural reforms and investments across six targeted policy areas, each of which present opportunities for U.S. businesses. The targeted sectors are:
- Digitalization, innovation, competitiveness, culture and tourism;
- Green revolution and ecological transition;
- Infrastructure and sustainability mobility;
- Education and research;
- Inclusion and cohesion; and
- Health
The Italian market also offers significant prospects for U.S. companies in the information and communications technology and cybersecurity sectors. In May 2022, ITA led a Minority Business Focused Trade Mission to Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which had a mission stop in Milan that has generated five export successes for participating U.S. companies in the information technology, cybersecurity, digital publishing and industrial technologies sectors.
Given the significant prospects for U.S. exporters producing innovative products and services, ITA selected Italy as one of the stops during Trade Winds Europe/Eurasia. For more information and registration for Trade Winds or the optional business-to-business matchmaking meetings in Denmark, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, and/or Türkiye, please visit the Trade Winds Europe/Eurasia webpage.