Trade and Technology Council

In summer of 2020, then-Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan approached the Trump Administration with the idea of resetting the EU-U.S. relationship with a Trade and Technology Council at its heart. The TTC – which was also championed within the Commission by Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager – would be meant to coordinate upstream trade, regulation and standard-setting on emerging technologies across the Atlantic. Brussels’ offer went relatively unheeded in the Trump Administration.

Almost at the same time on September 10, 2020 during the German EU presidency, the EU and China held the first High-Level Digital Dialogue, bringing together four Commissioners with 4 senior Chinese officials. The Dialogue – Europe’s first with a major tech power – focused on 5 areas: ICT standard setting, AI, product safety of articles sold online, DSTs and R&D. But the mood was considered tense and the dialogue of limited value in Brussels. The EU-China High-Level Digital Dialogue has not reconvened since.

Soon after at the September 2020 State of the European Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the EU’s desire to work on a trade and technology agenda with the White House regardless of the 2020 American election outcome. Following the November 2020 Biden-Harris victory calls began to emerge for a new effort at establishing US-EU alliance on democratic technology [7] and the EU launched a much more intensive campaign for cooperation – releasing the December 2, 2020 Communication “A New Transatlantic Agenda for Global Change” which proposed the TTC as a central vehicle for cooperation with the relationship. [8]

The Biden Administration made significant movement toward EU positions on a number of fronts. It rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, COVAX, the WHO, and indicated interest in rejoining the JCPOA. Furthermore, the administration and EU agreed to suspend $11.5 billion in tariffs resulting from the Boeing-Airbus dispute for 5 years. The two led OECD efforts to establish a minimum 15% corporate tax rate on companies with more than €750 million in annual revenues from 2023 onwards, generating around €150 billion new global tax revenues and redirecting over $125 billion taxable profit as a result of the location of economic activity. Together, this is intended to remove the potential of DSTs as an irritant between both sides of the Atlantic.

At the same time, the U.S. political climate was converging with the EU on a number of technology fronts: 1) both sides are closer than ever on data protection and privacy; content moderation and online safety; and market power of online platforms; 2) both sides indicated interest in a renewed industrial policy focused on avoiding supply chain bottlenecks, reducing climate emissions and furthering green technology; and 3) awareness of connectivity traps, supply chain vulnerabilities and weaponized technology interdependence have become a common geostrategic concern in both Brussels and Washington.

Despite Commission overtures, Biden administration policy reversals and greater convergence on digital and tech policy, the White House was slow to react to the Commission-led TTC idea. Until weeks prior to the June 15, 2021 EU-US Summit, it remained unclear whether the US would support the initiative at all. In advance of the Summit, Washington mounted pressure for a breakthrough on an interim Privacy Shield framework agreement that would create the space for greater focus on technology control issues (dual use export controls, investment screening, trustworthy vendors); industrial policy, R&D and supply chains; and increased cooperation on technical standard-setting – both bilaterally and in international bodies like the International Standards Organization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The fact that a Biden visit to Brussels could not mount the necessary momentum to achieve an interim agreement on Privacy Shield was seen as a setback. At the Summit, however, President Biden, Commission President von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel launched the TTC to:

• grow the bilateral trade and investment relationship;
• avoid new unnecessary technical barriers to trade;
• coordinate, seek common ground and strengthen global cooperation on technology, digital issues and supply chains;
• support collaborative research and exchanges;
• cooperate on compatible and international standards development;
• facilitate regulatory policy and enforcement cooperation and, where possible, convergence;
• promote innovation and leadership by U.S. and EU firms;
• and to strengthen other areas of cooperation.

Its ultimate objective is to “feed into coordination in multilateral bodies … and wider efforts with like-minded partners, with the aim of promoting a democratic model of digital governance.”[9]