EU-U.S. launch Trade and Technology Council to lead values-based global digital transformation

Following the launch of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) at the EU-U.S. Summit in June by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Joe Biden, the EU and the U.S. announced today the details for its first meeting on 29 September 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will be co-chaired by European Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, together with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai. The TTC co-chairs declared: “This inaugural meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) marks our joint commitment to expanding and deepening transatlantic trade and investment and to updating the rules for the 21st century economy. Building on our shared democratic values and the world’s largest economic relationship, we have been working hard since the Summit to identify the areas where we can take concrete steps to ensure trade and technology policies deliver for our people. In conjunction with the TTC, both the EU and U.S. are committed and look forward to robust and ongoing engagement with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure that the outcomes from this cooperation support broad-based growth in both economies and are consistent with our shared values.” The TTC’s ten working groups will tackle a diverse set of challenges, including cooperation on technology standards, global trade challenges and supply chain security, climate and green technology, ICT security and competitiveness, data governance and technology platforms, the misuse of technology threatening security and human rights, export controls, investment screening, and access to, and use of, digital technologies by small and medium enterprises. The full statement is available here.