Outcomes of the inaugural meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council

Written By

natallia karniyevich module
Dr. Natallia Karniyevich

Associate
Germany

I am a seasoned attorney situated at the Bird & Bird Düsseldorf office, with a specialisation in cybersecurity and data protection law, and a co-head of the Bird & Bird International Cybersecurity Steering Group.

The EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC), which was established at the June 2021 EU-US summit, held its inaugural ministerial-level meeting on 29 September in Pittsburgh, United States. As set out in the EU-US Trade and Technology Council Inaugural Joint Statement, the EU and the US committed to cooperating closely on certain key areas such as export controls, critical and emerging technology standards including for Artificial Intelligence, as well as secure supply chains. They also laid down concrete work programmes for each of the working groups under the TTC and defined further short-term goals.

As the cooperation under the TTC inter alia includes consultations on legislative and regulatory developments, compliance and enforcement approaches, it will be important for stakeholders to closely follow the TTC’s work and participate in the events for stakeholders.

Main goals and working methods

The TTC currently comprises 10 working groups led or co-led by relevant Departments, Services or Agencies. Five key areas of joint work have been identified for the coming months:

 Areas of cooperation  Agreement achieved in this area of cooperation
Investment screening
  • Meeting periodically to exchange best practices on effective investment screening;
  • Discussing tools addressing risks related to specific sensitive technologies;
  • Promoting shared principles, such as non-discrimination between foreign investors and transparency of rules;
  • Exploring ways of intensifying engagement with stakeholders and other partners.
Export controls
  • Consulting each other on legislative and regulatory developments, compliance and enforcement approaches;
  • Exchanging information on the risks around the export and transfer of sensitive technologies;
  • Developing convergent control approaches for the control of trade in sensitive dual-use technologies;
  • Building capacity to assist third countries in implementing international export control mechanisms;
  • Working in close partnership with industry and civil society, including a joint industry event on 27 October.

Technology standards, including cooperation on Artificial Intelligence

  • Developing approaches for coordination and cooperation in critical and emerging technology standards including AI;
  • Declaring their support for the development of technical standards in line with core values;
  • Aiming to foster participation in standards organisations for civil society organisations, start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging technologies.
Secure supply chains (especially regarding semiconductors)
  • Exploring ways to help rebalance the global semiconductor supply chains (including respective security of supply and respective capacity to design and produce semiconductors);
  • Enhancing cooperation to advance transparency and communication in the semiconductor supply chain;
  • Collaborating in analysing the roots of current semiconductor shortages.
 Global trade challenges
  • Sharing information on third-country non-market distortive practices that impact EU and US workers and businesses and explore how to mitigate these impacts;
  • Exchanging information on both sides’ domestic measures taken against distortive practices and coordinate the future development of these measures;
  • Cooperating to avoid new unnecessary barriers to trade in new and emerging technologies, while ensuring that legitimate regulatory objectives are achieved.

Future scope of work

In a nutshell, each of the 10 working groups has been asked by the TTC to carry out the following work ahead of the next meeting:

Working Group 1 - Technology Standards: is tasked to develop approaches for coordination and cooperation in critical and emerging technology standards including AI and other emerging technologies.

Working Group 2 - Climate and Clean Tech: is tasked (i) to identify opportunities, measures and incentives to support technology development, transatlantic trade and investment in climate-neutral technologies, products and services, including collaboration in third countries, research and innovation; and (ii) to jointly explore the methodologies, tools, and technologies for calculating embedded greenhouse gas emissions in global trade.

Working Group 3 - Secure Supply Chains: Alongside the dedicated track on semiconductors, this working group is tasked to focus on advancing respective supply chain resilience and security of supply in key sectors for the green and digital transition and for securing the protection of citizens.

Working Group 4 - Information and Communication Technology and Services (ICTS) Security and Competitiveness: is tasked inter alia to continue to work towards ensuring security, diversity, interoperability and resilience across the ICT supply chain, including sensitive and critical areas such as 5G, undersea cables, data centres, and cloud infrastructure.

Working Group 5 - Data Governance and Technology Platforms: is tasked to exchange information on (i) EU-US respective approaches to data governance and technology platform governance, seeking consistency and interoperability where feasible; as well as (ii) regarding current and future regulations in both the European Union and the United States with a goal of effectively addressing shared concerns; and (iii) discussing common approaches to the role of cloud infrastructure and services.

Working Group 6 - Misuse of Technology Threatening Security and Human Rights: is tasked to (i) combat arbitrary or unlawful surveillance, including on social media platforms; (ii) explore building an effective mechanism to respond to Internet shutdowns, in conjunction with the G7 and others likeminded countries; (iii) work to protect human rights defenders online; (iv) increase transatlantic cooperation to address foreign information manipulation, including disinformation, and interference with democratic processes, while upholding freedom of expression and privacy rights; and (v) address social scoring systems and collaborate on projects furthering the development of trustworthy AI.

Working Group 7 - Export Controls: is tasked to (i) engage in technical consultations on legislative and regulatory developments; and (ii) exchange information on risk assessments and licensing good practices, as well as on compliance and enforcement approaches; (iii) promote convergent control approaches on sensitive dual-use technologies; and (iv) perform joint industry outreach on dual-use export controls.

Working Group 8 - Investment Screening: is tasked to focus: (i) on exchanging information on investment trends impacting security, including strategic trends with respect to industries concerned, origin of investments, and types of transactions; (ii) on best practices, including with respect to risk analysis and the systems for risk mitigation measures with a focus on sensitive technologies and related sensitive data, which may include personal data; and (iii) together with other groups develop a holistic view of the policy tools addressing risks related to specific sensitive technologies. This working group is also expected to conduct a joint virtual outreach event for stakeholders.

Working Group 9 - Promoting Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Access to and Use of Digital Tools: is tasked (i) to launch outreach activities that will offer opportunities for SMEs and underserved communities, and their representatives, to share their needs, experience, strategies and best practices with policymakers; and (ii) to develop recommendations for EU and US policymakers to implement that will help to accelerate access to and the uptake of digital technologies.

Working Group 10 - Global Trade Challenges: is tasked to focus on challenges from non-market economic policies and practices, avoiding new and unnecessary technical barriers in products and services of emerging technology, promoting and protecting labour rights and decent work, and following further consultations, trade and environment issues.

Next steps

In connection with stakeholder consultations, the TTC intends to separately make available points of contact, where the stakeholders may submit their input, comments and view. In addition, regular exchanges with stakeholders are to be organised through diverse channels, both at the level of working groups and political principals, as well as by each of the respective parties or jointly. Within the export control cooperation, a joint EU-US virtual outreach event for stakeholders is for example planned for 27 October 2021.

Future meetings of the TTC will focus on defining ambitions in further important areas such as data governance and tech platforms, clean technology, SME access to digital, ICT security and competitiveness as well as combatting the misuse of technology.

For further information contact Dr. Natallia Karniyevich

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