“The Trade and Tech Council (TTC) was established 2 years ago. Time to show big results”, said Dutch MEP Catharina Rinzema (Renew Europe), a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, after the fourth meeting of the TTC on Wednesday 31 May (see EUROPE 13191/7).
She thus followed in the footsteps of her committee chairman, Bernd Lange (S&D, German), who, while welcoming the results achieved by the TTC, regretted the lack of announcements on trade relations.
“I miss concrete progress in some of the key aspects of our relationship”, she said. And she cites the trade controversies that have been worrying Europeans for months, if not years: - pending agreement on sustainable steel and aluminium; - discussions to obtain better access to Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies; - work on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO).
With regard to the ongoing negotiations between the EU and Washington on an agreement on raw materials, Bernd Lange stressed that the European Parliament should be more involved in the process, particularly since the aim is to obtain a negotiating mandate for a binding instrument. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)