Launched by President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel at the U.S.-EU Summit in June 2021, the Trade and Technology Council held its inaugural meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 29, 2021. U.S. Co-Chairs, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, were joined by EU Co-Chairs European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis to establish common principles to update the rules of the road for a 21st century economy and deliver for our people.
The United States and the EU are home to 780 million people who share democratic values and the largest economic relationship in the world. We will work together to generate shared economic growth that benefits working families, farmers and ranchers, and businesses with a particular focus on opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. At the meeting, the United States and European Union decided to closely coordinate on an expansive set of critical economic and technology issues over the coming months and achieve concrete outcomes by the next meeting:
- Global trade challenges and addressing non-market, trade distortive practices: The United States and European Union seek to strengthen their competitiveness and technological leadership by developing common strategies to mitigate the impact of non-market practices at home and in third countries and by working to avoid new and unnecessary barriers to trade, especially in products and services derived from emerging technologies. We also intend to use our tools to protect workers and labor rights, combat forced and child labor, and consult on relevant trade, climate, and environmental issues.
- Semiconductor supply chains: The United States and European Union intend to enhance cooperation on measures to advance transparency and communication in the semiconductor supply chain and identify gaps, shared vulnerabilities, and opportunities to strengthen our domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing ecosystems with a view to improving resilience in the semiconductor supply chain.
- Investment screening: The United States and European Union intend to exchange information on investment trends affecting security, including industry specific trends, origin of investments, and types of transactions, and on best practices with respect to analyzing and addressing risk, with a focus on sensitive technologies and related sensitive data.
- Export Controls: The United States and European Union determined shared principles and areas for export control cooperation, including capacity building assistance to third countries to support multilateral export control regimes, prior consultations on current and upcoming legislative and regulatory developments, and developing convergent control approaches on sensitive dual-use technologies.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): The United States and European Union will develop and implement AI systems that are innovative and trustworthy and that respect universal human rights and shared democratic values, explore cooperation on AI technologies designed to enhance privacy protections, and undertake an economic study examining the impact of AI on the future of our workforces.
The TTC co-chairs tasked the working groups with developing work plans to strengthen our cooperation on additional critical areas. This includes prompting small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) access to digital tools, securing critical supply chains, cooperating on emerging technology standards, advancing climate and clean tech objectives, data governance and technology platforms, information and communications technology security and competitiveness, and the misuse of technology threatening security and human rights.
In addition, the inaugural TTC included a meeting with a broad range of stakeholders and we intend to continue robust engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders, including but not limited to industry, labor organizations, think tanks, non-profit organizations, environmental constituencies, academics, and other civil society members.
###
