The fifth meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) is being held in Washington on Tuesday 30 January. The meeting will not result in a joint declaration, as is usually the case. Instead, the participants should set the course for the TTC, which will take place in Belgium in the spring, the last meeting before deciding on the TTC’s future.
European Commissioners Margrethe Vestager (Competition), Valdis Dombrovskis (Trade) and Thierry Breton (Internal Market) will be on board on 30 January. In particular, they will be meeting US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The meeting should enable work to continue in all areas open to the TTC: sustainable trade, supply chains, standards, artificial intelligence, conformity assessments, etc.
In this area, for example, the EU hopes to extend the existing Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with Washington to include green technologies. A decision is expected at the TTC meeting in April. For the time being, consultations are underway to identify the sectors that could potentially be included in the agreement, according to a European official.
For European business representatives BusinessEurope and the American Chamber of Commerce, the agreement could be extended to vaccines, as well as machinery, clean technologies, medical devices and electrical equipment. “This will cut red tape and accelerate market access for innovative products”, say the two organisations.
On the subject of economic security, the three European Commissioners are expected to present the European Commission’s recent work in this area to their counterparts (see EUROPE 13335/1). The EU also wants to present “fresh ideas” to the United States for greater cooperation on investment screening and export controls, according to a European source.
TTC participants are expected to devote a great deal of attention to artificial intelligence, in particular to compare European and American approaches. The aim is to identify avenues for cooperation in this area.
The agreement on critical minerals that the EU hopes to conclude with the United States will also be on the agenda. According to a European official, the discussions mainly revolve around working conditions in third countries where the raw materials come from.
In addition to concrete work in the areas mentioned above, BusinessEurope and the US Chamber of Commerce are hoping for results in the removal of trade barriers. “As the recent summit neither yielded agreements on steel/aluminium or critical minerals nor resolved other trade irritants, we call on officials to use the TTC to secure concrete outcomes for the transatlantic business community”, said the two organisations.
However, no announcements are expected in the immediate future, as transatlantic trade relations suffer from recurring problems, despite the positive developments. “We will always have issues with the US and the US always will have issues with us”, says a European source. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)