As Elections Loom, US, EU Officials Tout Benefits of TTC
U.S. and EU officials speaking in Belgium didn’t divulge many details about what they expect to come from the sixth meeting of the Trade and Technology Council this week, saying mostly that they hope the forum will continue no matter who wins upcoming elections in the U.S. and Europe (see 2403120066).
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“It is no secret that this year is an important year for both Europe and the United States with important elections taking place on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU. She said the two sides need to “affirm our commitment to the principle of trade, free trade, open markets and technological innovation.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other officials speaking during an April 4 event hosted by the council said they believe the TTC has accomplished “a lot” over the past four years and believes the forum will continue. Raimondo specifically pointed to the work “resolving [Section] 232 tensions” and added that the U.S. and the EU “are on our way to a global steel arrangement.”
The U.S. and the EU also worked together “when war broke out in Russia to combine our export controls, and we’re seamlessly working together around the semiconductor industry which secures our supply chains, on and on and on,” Raimondo said during the event, which was held at the site of TTC meetings this week in Belgium. “So I think we're off to a remarkable start.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai made similar points but said there’s still so “much more we have to do.” She said the TTC has given her repeated reasons to work closer with her government counterparts in Europe, and it could do the same for future U.S. officials.
“I have had so many opportunities to visit European member states, to get myself out of Brussels, to become a better partner to the EU on trade issues,” Tai said. “The stakes of this partnership today are so incredibly high.”
Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, said he hopes the two sides this week can focus on “further promoting sustainable trade” and green technologies. He also said he wants to address “economic security concerns,” adding that the TTC has given the EU and the U.S. a forum to “cooperate well” on export controls, investment screening and supply chain resilience.