On Monday 16 October, just a few days before the EU-US summit, the big business lobby BusinessEurope and the US Chamber of Commerce published a joint statement on the issues at stake in the trade agreements still under discussion.
In their letter, the two representatives reiterate the economic and geopolitical importance of good cooperation between the United States and the EU. “We urge EU and U.S. leaders to use this timely summit to definitively reject protectionism and avoid discrimination [...]resolve outstanding disputes”, they write.
Scheduled for Friday 20 October (see EUROPE 13259/9), the EU-US summit is expected to provide an opportunity for European leaders and US President Joe Biden to discuss a number of long-standing sensitive trade issues, including the global agreement on steel and aluminium (see EUROPE 13235/10) and the agreement on critical minerals (see EUROPE 13227/8).
BusinessEurope and the US Chamber of Commerce are also calling for discussions within the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to be accelerated in order “to achieve tangible outcomes ahead of next year’s elections”.
For the two lobbies, these decisions must obviously take account of the opinions expressed by representatives of the private sector.
The press release: https://aeur.eu/f/92d (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)