Business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch MP and Italy’s minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani signed the UK-Italy Export and Investment Promotion Dialogue on Wednesday, February 8, in Rome.

UK and Italy have signed an agreement to enhance trade and boost economic growth, creating jobs, increasing wages and driving exports. The partnership, a first of its kind between the UK and any EU country, aims to boost exports in various sectors, and promote inward investment in low-carbon industries such as offshore wind and carbon capture storage.

The agreement cements the UK’s position as a vital trade partner within Europe and the G7, demonstrating the country’s potential as an independent trading nation to form comprehensive trade deals with new markets, while strengthening its partnerships with EU member countries, UK’s department of international trade said in a media release.

Business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch MP said: “This partnership marks a significant milestone in the UK’s trading relationship with Europe and shows how an independent UK can benefit from striking ambitious trade deals with the world, while also reinforcing our already strong and prosperous trading relationship with EU members such as Italy.

“This partnership will boost trade and investment between British and Italian businesses, ease the path for valuable investment, and will crucially grow UK exports as we aim for our target of selling £1 trillion of goods and services a year to the world by the end of the decade.”

The UK and Italy are both among the top 10 global economies and trade between the two countries is valued at over £43 billion, making Italy the UK’s 11^th largest trading partner. In 2020-21, Italy was also the 6th largest source of UK Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects globally.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)