By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

One of the all time classic science fiction films is The Day Earth Stood Still from 1951. One such day, where the whole world stands still, is today. On such a day, all eyes are on the USA for the outcome of the election battle between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The winner takes the reins of the largest economy on the planet, with which the Greek economy – as far as it moves away from the image of the memorandums – strengthens its ties every year.

Trade

The 2 countries are “united” by $12.3 billion, which is the value of trade relations between Greece and Turkey in 2023, according to the updated data of the American State Department. This is a historic high, while what is sensational is that the balance is positive in our favor and in fact the analysis of the data shows that Greek exports are more than double the American ones.

Figures say Greece exported $8bn worth of goods to Turkey last year, a 5.4% increase compared to 2022.

It is characteristic that Greek exports from $3.15 billion – which is also the lowest level of the last decade – have increased by 155%. The US may be the 5th largest recipient of Greek products, but again, Greece’s export footprint remains very small since imports from our country constitute only 0.2% of US imports.

In the United States we mainly export:

  • Refined Oil
  • Processed Vegetables
  • Cement
  • Aluminum plates
  • Iron pipes
  • Olive oil
  • Slice

On the other hand, imports from the USA reached €4 billion last year and Turkey is in the 6th place among our “suppliers”. American exports decreased compared to 2022 by 6.8% but since 2015 when they were the lowest in the last decade with $2.2 billion they have recovered by almost 82%

From the USA we mainly import:

  • Oil – Natural gas
  • Gas turbines
  • Scrap Iron
  • Electrical parts of optical instruments
  • Alcohol
  • Ethylene Polymers

Tourism

The American market is of pivotal importance to our largest industry, tourism. The pandemic was a setback and now our country is trying to rebuild and strengthen ties with the US.

The figures of the Bank of Greece say that in the 8th month of this year, a little more than 1 million American tourists came to our country, an increase of 8.4% compared to last year and 57% compared to 2022.
The receipts reached €980 million, which means that on average an American visitor spends €980 on his vacation in our country.

In contrast, in the latest INSETE study, only 2% of respondents state that they traveled to the USA, which translates to a maximum of 130,000 visitors.

Investments

Here is glorious field for “tightening” relationships.

In its report on our country, the State Department stands by the efforts of the Greek government to improve the investment climate, promote structural reforms and recover the investment level. All this translated into direct investments of $7.6 billion in 2022 with Greece recording one of the highest growth rates.

In the last decade, according to enterprisegreece, the USA has been the 7th largest investor in our country, the 2nd largest outside the Eurozone after China.

In 2023 they invested $1.8 billion, a 4% increase over 2022 which is a record since 2014.

Applied Materials, AWS, Cisco, Deloitte, Digital Realty, Google, JP Morgan, Meta, Microsoft, and Pfizer are just some of the American companies that are implementing investment plans in Greece with an impact of billions of dollars in the coming years as noted by the US Department of State.

The Onex group will invest €250 million over the next five years.

The Americans argue that Greece seeks to strengthen the American investment presence in the fields of energy, defense, health, tourism, shipping and technology.

$720 million was Greek direct investment in the US, up 10% compared to 2022 as the US is the 5th most “favorite” destination for Greek investors.