Trade and Technology Council

The early agenda focused primarily on US-EU cooperation in technology, strategic sectors, market access, trade, democratic values and rule of law in the digital world, supply chain resilience, the global trade order and the EU's developing regulatory agenda like Digital Services Act, Data Act and Cloud Rules.

[6] 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.

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.

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.

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.

Overall, the TTC’s scope and ambition laid out in the Pittsburgh Joint Statement – with its 10 working groups covering a range of tech issues – exceeded expectations.

First, it ringfenced the issue around antitrust and the Digital Markets Act taking it outside of the TTC and placing it in the separate EU-US Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue.

There is speculation that the meeting will thus take place in France and reflect Paris priorities, specifically around R&D and industrial policy on chip production.

If successful, in the mid term the TTC could address questions around AR/VR, quantum computing and blockchain technology, and NextGen Internet governance.