TTC Needs to Bolster 'Trade' Part of Title, Negotiators Say
The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council has done some excellent work in technology, according to EU and U.S. trade officials, but it needs to tackle the "trade" part of its mission more directly. A discussion on Making a More Meaningful TTC also included executives from two technology industry associations, who were somewhat less laudatory about its results so far.
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The panel was hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, as part of a two-day conference.
Daniel Mullaney, who recently retired from his job as assistant U.S. trade representative for Europe, said that the TTC is a different approach from the failed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. That series of negotiations was aimed at tariff lowering in a comprehensive trade agreement, and was working to find acceptable trade-offs, so that U.S. agricultural exporters could get better market access and European industrial exporters could get lower tariffs.
Mullaney said the TTC is based on common interests, so to use it correctly, staff and political appointees need to identify what both the U.S. and the EU are motivated to do, and need to get specific.
"What are the particular products, what are the particular sectors when it comes to conformity of assessments, standards," he said.
Michelangelo Margherita, head of Trade, Agriculture and Digital Economy in the delegation of the EU in Washington, said he largely agreed on how Mullaney characterized the challenges.
"I think the TTC is working on a large number of issues. It also is working as a system," he said. He said "there has been a lot of excellent work" in coordinating export controls and investment screening, and on digital issues.
But Jonathan McHale, vice president-digital trade at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said that while the work on artificial intelligence regulations has been quite helpful, the U.S. and the EU are still butting heads on some digital issues. He and Jason Oxman, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, both said that the U.S. should be better able to use the TTC platform to get changes to pending legislation in Europe called the EU Cybersecurity Act.
McHale said, "We have hit some of the low-hanging fruit. We need to grapple with some of the more difficult issues... ." He also said he fears the TTC is losing some momentum.
"I think the sweet spot here is not necessarily arguing about the stuff that is already settled … but rather discussing the stuff that is still under development," he added.
Margherita and Mullaney diverged on what they thought should be top priorities at the ministerial meeting in June. Margherita said that there needs to be a transatlantic initiative for sustainable trade -- and not one that discriminates against imports, as the Inflation Reduction Act does. He said there should be integrated supply chains for critical minerals and for recycling electric vehicle batteries.
Mullaney said: "I’d like to see concrete coordination on a particular sector in China," and he named medical devices as the area on which the EU and the U.S. should develop a common approach to confronting China's non-market practices in that sector. He said the other deliverable he'd like to see is an agreement on participating in standards development.