The United States is the world's leading economy and Italy's third largest trading partner, after Germany and France, with an interchange worth 93.1 billion euros in 2024. The United States becomes the second largest market for made in Italy, with exports worth 67.2 billion euros in 2024, after surpassing France, a market now worth 62.4 billion euros, in 2022.

In the current difficult economic phase, sales also stagnate in the U.S. market (-0.2 % in the first eight months of 2024). In the three-year period 2021-2024, exports to the U.S. recorded a cumulative growth of +36.1 %, a rate well above the +16.8 % growth of exports to France and the +6.5 % growth of exports to Germany.

The sectoral analysis shows that in 2023 Italy is the leading country in the European Union in terms of exports to the United States in sectors with a high presence of micro and small enterprises (MPIs) - food, fashion, wood and furniture, metal products, other manufacturing, including jewelry and eyewear - with 7.2 billion euros, ahead of Germany with 13.6 billion and France with 8.2 billion.

In more detail, Italy ranks first among the 27 European Union countries in exports to the United States for fashion products with 5.1 billion in exports -- including 2.4 billion euros in clothing and 2.7 billion euros in leather --, food products with 4.0 billion euros and furniture with 1.6 billion. A more detailed analysis shows that Italy is the leading European exporter to the United States both for jewelry with 1.6 billion euros in sales to the U.S. market and, in the area of leather, for footwear with 1.4 billion euros.

From a territorial perspective, the regions with the greatest exposure to the U.S. market for sales of products in the MPI sectors, with values above the national average, are Tuscany with an export value in the sectors under consideration that is 2.3 % of regional GDP, Veneto with 1.9 % of GDP, Umbria with 1.3 % of GDP, Friuli-Venezia Giulia with 1.2 % of GDP, Marche with 1.1 % of GDP and Lombardy with 1.0 % of GDP.