The Belgian city of Leuven is hosting the 6th meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 April. The future of this discussion forum has not yet been determined because of the elections on both sides of the Atlantic, and the current participants wish to persuade others of its relevance. However, the TTC has failed to solve the most pressing problems in the transatlantic economic and trade relationship.
The dispute over steel and aluminium is still ongoing, and the agreement on critical minerals has not yet been concluded and will not be in the next few days. In response to the problem posed by the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for Europeans, the TTC is launching a “Clean Energy Incentives Dialogue”.
However, the European Commission had hoped to adopt a joint statement on this subject, in which the two partners undertook to limit subsidies to necessary and proportionate needs (see EUROPE 13377/18).
However, a revised version of the draft statement dated 2 April, which Agence Europe was able to consult, no longer includes a joint statement on this subject in an annex, but only three paragraphs on the much talked about Dialogue. The EU and the US are expected to express their intention “to share specific information about [their] respective public incentive programs starting with one sector as a pilot, with the possibility to extend this to further sectors”.
In this part, the two partners stress the importance of exchanging views on the unfair practices of certain third countries, including China, according to the draft version of the statement. It should be noted, however, that this version is still subject to change. The various references to China in the text are particularly problematic for some EU Member States, according to two European sources.
Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, 6G...
Transatlantic cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) will be reaffirmed at this 6th meeting. To this end, the European Artificial Intelligence Office and the US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute will establish a dialogue to strengthen their collaboration, according to the draft joint statement.
As far as semiconductors are concerned, the early warning mechanism for disruptions to the semiconductor supply chain and the transparency mechanism for public support in this sector is expected to be extended for 3 years.
As for cooperation on 6G, an administrative arrangement is due to be announced between the US National Science Foundation and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. The aim is to give concrete expression to the two blocs’ cooperation on 6G and next-generation Internet technologies.
Partnership for the security of supply of minerals
On the sidelines of the TTC, the EU and the United States will officially launch the Minerals Security Partnership on Friday 5 April. It is the expression of the European ambition to create a club on critical minerals between countries rich in resources and countries requiring these same resources.
While the EU and Washington are organising the launch of the partnership, they are not the only participants. Ministers from four other countries will be present at the event in Leuven: Kazakhstan, Namibia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Twenty other countries have also been invited to join the event remotely.
For the future, the EU plans to bring together as many countries as possible around this partnership, according to a European official. For developing countries with large resources of critical minerals, the EU wants to offer “an alternative to what China, for example, has to offer. Our approach is much more based on partnership, collaboration, identifying funding opportunities, and on working on sustainability too”, according to the same official. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)