Trade Over Aid or Aid and Trade? The Italian Development Cooperation Challenge
The United States promotes the “Trade Over Aid” model, which tends to subordinate development cooperation to market logics. In the run-up to COOPERA 2026, Nino Sergi argues that Italy should reaffirm an “Aid and Trade” approach, based on the integration of economic development, social justice and equitable partnerships, in line with Law 125/2014 and the Mattei Plan.
10/05/2026
In an international context where the “Trade Over Aid” logic is gaining ground, the analysis by Nino Sergi, Honorary President of INTERSOS and policy advisor to LINK 2007, published in VITA NON PROFIT HERE , highlights a now central issue: economic development and social justice cannot be separated.
When trade becomes the dominant lever of development policies, Sergi writes, it is necessary to question the conditions shaping trade and investment—not to deny their importance, but to challenge the illusion that growth, well-being and rights are automatically distributed.
This is where the difference emerges between cooperation understood as public policy and cooperation reduced to a mere market-driven tool.
With Law 125/2014 and the Mattei Plan, Italy has already affirmed an approach that combines development cooperation and economic partnerships. For this reason, COOPERA 2026 cannot be limited to a formal institutional event; it must also become a moment of assessment of the Italian development cooperation system’s ability to translate this approach into concrete action.
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