EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis was in Washington D.C. on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 April to meet with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, among others. The trip was an opportunity to prepare the next meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which will take place from 15 to 16 May in Paris.
For Gina Raimondo, “our work in the TTC around coordinating export controls and rules on tech has laid the foundation for swift collaboration on our actions against Russia”. Working group 7 has been working on the subject of export controls since September.
It is estimated that half of Russia’s advanced technology imports have recently been rendered impossible by the control measures taken by the US and its allies, according to Ms Raimondo.
EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis agreed with this two-fold observation and added: “we need to continue to build on this momentum of collaboration across broader areas of collaboration”. The rapprochement between the EU and the US, which has been underway since US President Joe Biden took office, has accelerated since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two powers are working together to establish what they call the ‘rules-based international order’ (see other news).
Mr Dombrovskis recalled the ongoing work in other areas between the EU and the US, notably on the issue of global steel and aluminium overcapacity. After reaching an agreement on 31 October 2021 to partially remove the so-called ‘Section 232’ tariffs on these products, Valdis Dombrovskis and Gina Raimondo committed to reaching a comprehensive agreement on sustainable steel and aluminium within two years, i.e. by October 2023 (see EUROPE 12824/4). “It’s ambitious and means we need to work. Our teams have been exchanging views, but clearly we need to intensify this work”, said the EU Commissioner for Trade. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)