Italian Trade Commission/Agency

government agency promoting foreign trade
Italian Trade Commission/Agency

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sede_AGID_Sede_ITA.jpg

1926-present

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The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) is the Italian agency responsible for promoting trade and the internationalization of Italian companies.

It was originally created in 1926 as the "Istituto Nazionale per le Esportazioni" (National Institute for Exports). In the 1930s, it was transofrmed into the National Institue for Foreign Trade, acquiring competencies related to imports. Its current name dates back to 1945, when its role as an institution for the promotion of Italian products and companies in the world was reconfirmed.

During the post-war period, ITA had offices throughout the world, generally working alongside and in agreement with the commercial offices of Italian embassies and in direct contact with and dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Among ITA's main offices in the United States and among those most active in promoting Made in Italy overseas were the centers in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Between the 1950's and the 1960's, all these offices promoted numerous initiatives to advertise Italian products and brands, organizing fashion shows, tastings, gala events, film screenings, ensuring Italy's participation in the main American trade fairs and events, producing newsletters and supplying material to the press, as well as to public and private actors interested in Italian products.

In 1962, ITA established a course of study focused on foreign trade called CorCe.

In 2011, ITA was replaced by the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies/Italian Trade Agency. In 2015, the agency officially launched "Italian Made," a media campaign specifically aimed at the North American market. The campaign mostly focuses on food products and employs an advertising rhetoric marked by some of the concepts most commonly associated with Made in Italy, such as those of "authenticity," "tradition," and "good taste."

Related Vectors

Vittorio Sanguineti

Commercial attaché at the Italian Embassy in the US

"Italy Presents"

Magazine published by ICE in the US

Italian Trade Topics

Italian Trade Magazine in the US

Barra Firm

Italian fashion boutiques in San Francisco

Ugo Morabito

Bergdorf Goodman

Media gallery

Sources

https://www.ice.it/it/it

https://www.italianmade.com/usa/

Parasecoli, Fabio. "The Invention of Authentic Italian Food: Narratives, Rhetoric, and Media," in Sassatelli, Roberta (eds.), Italians and Food. Basingstoke, UK: Springer Nature, 2019.

Author Giulia Crisanti