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Underscoring the global concerns about China’s growing power, the EU’s trade and digital chiefs Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager stressed on Monday that the US-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will give Europe more influence and will set standards and rules for the 21st century, Euractive reports.
The first TTC meeting in scheduled on Wednesday, September 29, in Pittsburgh and is of real strategic and geopolitical importance in a time when the US and Europe are facing increased rivalry from China in areas ranging from trade to defence and technology.
The co-chairs of the meeting , along with Dombrovskis and Vestager , will be the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Though Dombrovskis and Vestager emphasize it’s important for this Council to amplify the status of Europe, Dombrovskis also insisted that the platform is not targeted at any particular country, but is about cooperation and coordination between the United States and the EU on a number of policy areas.
Domrovski stressed that with the TTC- having in its core the shared transatlantic values like democracy, a human-centric approach to technology and economic growth benefiting workers- EU & US are conveying a message that they want to lead the way in setting 21st century standards and rules.
TTT is comprised of 10 working groups that will focus, according to Vestager, on areas that are key for the EU such as technology standards, export controls, green technology, supply-chain security, global trade issues etc.
A leaked draft memo shows both the US and EU plan more unified approach to restrain the Big Tech companies’ growing market power, achieving package that covers both offensive and defensive interests.
Such cooperation has become critically important for regulators on both sides of the Atlantic and would make it harder for the American tech giants to fight the new rules with several tech trade groups in Washington already pointing the industry does not want the US to adopt the European approach to digital regulation.
Robert Atkinson, president of the Washington-based tech think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, underlined there’s a risk that EU will press the US to harmonize its regulations with the EU by taking a precautionary approach.
The EU also hopes to hold a second meeting next spring in Belgium.
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