In One Sentence

• At the second meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), the United States and the European Union lauded prior TTC efforts for fostering an “unprecedented level of cooperation” on export controls and sanctions against Russia.
• The two sides committed to work on Russia-related supply chain disruption and combat Russian disinformation.
• The U.S. and EU also resolved to effectively address trade-distortive non-market policies and practices, including by working trilaterally with Japan.
• Furthermore, the two sides agreed to strengthen collaboration on international standardization activities, research and development in emerging technologies, as well as general supply chain resiliency.

Mark the Essentials

• The two sides maintain that they share a desire to defend their security through coordinated actions on export controls of critical and dual-use technologies as well as on investment screening tools. 
• The U.S. and the EU committed to develop a common analytical framework for identifying foreign information manipulation and interference. The framework will initially focus on ongoing Russian actions to manipulate and censor information.
• According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the U.S. and the EU plan to reach an agreement on the alignment of their export control regimes with regard to key technologies by the third TTC meeting. The deal could include other countries, such as Japan, and will ostensibly focus on semiconductors.
• While recognizing the TTC’s commitment on semiconductor supply chains and the green transition, industry representatives called for more clarity and transatlantic coordination on issues such as state subsidies for chips and securing critical materials essential to the green technology transition.

Keeping an Eye On…

• Logging in at a mammoth 48 pages, the joint statement issued at the conclusion of the second meeting of the TTC must surely be one for the record books. As for the meeting itself, it was not quite as historic, although by all accounts it seems to have been a successful one. The principals shepherded the TTC framework from agenda-setting to the nitty-gritty of policy setting, including on the issue of export controls. A set of roadmaps, mechanisms, cooperation frameworks, and taskforces were also set in motion. The binding glue supplied by Vladimir Putin’s brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine, while important, was not the overriding reason for the meeting’s success. But the spillover effects of the transatlantic measures related to Russia will have significant implications going forward for trade and technology ties between not only Washington and Beijing but also Europe and China. That said, the U.S. and the EU’s work within the TTC is just beginning and they would be well advised not to count their chickens before they hatch. More than four years ago, the U.S., the EU and Japan optimistically set in motion a ministerial-level working group to devise updated international rules on industrial subsidies, primarily as a means to call out Chinese practices. Today, the three parties have precious little to jointly show in this regard. At the end of the day, what is important is not how you start but how you finish, and Washington and Brussels should take heed of that dictum as they begin to deepen their engagement within the TTC.

Expanded Reading

• U.S.-EU Joint Statement of the Trade and Technology Council, U.S. Department of Commerce, May 16, 2022
• FACT SHEET: U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Establishes Economic and Technology Policies & Initiatives, White House, May 16, 2022
• EU-US Trade and Technology Council: strengthening our renewed partnership in turbulent times, European Commission, May 16, 2022
• Joint Statement by President von der Leyen and President Biden on the meeting of the Trade and Technology Council, European Commission, May 16, 2022
• ​U.S., EU Boost Trade Ties to Remedy Supply Shortages, Counter Russia and China, Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2022 [Paywall]
• EU, U.S. step up cooperation to combat Ukraine war disruption, Reuters, May 16, 2022 [Paywall]
• Russian Invasion Intensifies Role of New U.S.-EU Tech Council, Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2022 [Paywall]