The participants in the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) met in Washington on Tuesday 30 January for their second-to-last meeting before the end of the European Commission’s mandate. The future of the TTC will depend on the will of the Europeans, but also of the Americans after their respective elections in 2024. “From our side, definitely the ambition would be to maintain it, maybe as a second generation but to maintain it”, stated Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on 30 January.
Speaking to the press in Washington and at an event at the Atlantic Council, Ms Vestager explained the relevance of the TTC to the future of transatlantic relations. The five meetings at ministerial level have enabled the parties involved to get to know each other well, she said. This is also the case for civil servants working at technical level: “All the different working groups know each other very well. On our side, commissioners may come and go but services are quite stable. So, on our side, there will be a lot of stability”.
According to the Commissioner, one way of improving the TTC, if its work is extended, could be to consult stakeholders even more on the TTC’s subjects, with dedicated events. Such events with stakeholders have already taken place alongside the TTC. This was particularly the case on 31 January, on the subject of the green transatlantic market.
The next TTC meeting is due to be held in Belgium in early April, and will be the last before a decision is taken on the future of this format. In any case, the meeting in Washington provided an opportunity to take stock of the work in progress and the results expected in April. The participants reiterated their desire to deepen cooperation on economic security, emerging technologies, the semiconductor value chain, etc. If the desire to facilitate trade and investment was reiterated, concrete results in this area have still not been announced (see EUROPE 13339/10).
Since its creation, the TTC has been more successful on technology issues than on trade relations. Ms Vestager highlighted the joint warning system for disruptions to the supply of semi-conductors and the standard established for electric chargers for heavy vehicles.
Artificial Intelligence
On Tuesday 30 January, the TTC’s discussions largely revolved around the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). Ms Vestager and the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, pointed out that they have different approaches to this issue. The latter stated that the two partners shared the same objectives and principles in this area. “We have a forum where we can complain about each other, but in a constructive manner”, said Ms Vestager.
Cybersecurity
On the margins of the TTC, the Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, and US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, also issued a joint statement underlining the importance of EU-US cooperation in the fight against cyber threats.
The two sides are committed to making progress in the areas of critical infrastructure protection, crisis management, software security, post-quantum cryptography and AI cybersecurity.
Lastly, the meeting provided an opportunity to revisit the Joint CyberSafe Products Action Plan agreed in October 2023, which should eventually lead to mutual recognition of US and European cybersecurity requirements for consumer hardware and software products for the Internet of Things. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal and Thomas Mangin)