Ref. Ares(2022)6986123 - 10/10/2022
13 May 2022
Open Letter to the EU-U.S. Trade & Technology Council (TTC)
ahead of the Second Ministerial Meetings in Paris Saclay, France
Recent events have demonstrated that our shared transatlantic values, including democracy,
human rights, and respect for the international order based on the rule of law and multilateral
institutions, are threatened. At this critical juncture, a strong partnership between the United
States and the European Union must serve as a catalyst for cooperation among democratic allies.
We are encouraged by the strong momentum that the transatlantic relationship currently enjoys.
This is evident in the common resolve the EU and U.S. have demonstrated to combat Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, and the notable progress in resolving differences, such as the recent
announcement on the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework that will enable sustainable growth
and job creation, while ensuring rule of law1.
Technological innovation thrives on scale, investment and the market economy. Both U.S. and EU
companies will be globally more competitive if they share a combined transatlantic market of
almost 800 million people and can therefore harness the investment and innovation opportunities
that such scale provides. When considered as a whole, the transatlantic economy is the largest,
most prosperous, and most innovative in the world2, and its potential is much greater still.
It is clearly a transatlantic interest that Europe strengthens its competitiveness and succeeds in
the twin transition to a green and digital economy. In parallel, both sides would benefit if America
did more to foster trust in advanced technology, while Europe strives to strengthen its own
innovation capabilities. Against this backdrop, the TTC can serve as a focal point to increase trust
and understanding, foster regulatory dialogue, and make substantive progress in addressing
policy differences between the U.S. and the EU in the immediate term. While regulatory
cooperation is important, technology leadership through regulatory cooperation alone is
insufficient and hence we also believe in the need for increased transatlantic research cooperation
paving the way for deeper and broader progress in the future.
SUGGESTED GUIDING PRINCIPLES Given the importance of the TTC to strengthening the alliance between the world’s leading
economies and democracies in a time of serious global challenges3, we believe the time is ripe to
deepen and accelerate its work. As a group of American and European headquartered companies
1 Secretary Raimondo Statement on Announcement of Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework | U.S. Department of
Commerce
2
“The Transatlantic Economy 2022: Annual Survey of Jobs, Trade and Investment between the United States and
Europe”, AmChamEU
3 Speech by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis at European Parliament Discussion on E.U.-U.S. Trade & Technology
Council
which are strongly committed to the transatlantic partnership, we believe the following principles
should guide the direction and actions of the Council over the months to come:
•
Ensuring our technological edge and leading role in global innovation: To stay ahead of
the curve in the innovation race, it is critical that we work together to balance regulatory goals
and technological innovation, while ensuring open markets. More dialogue is needed to build
public and governmental trust in investing in and rolling out emerging technologies while
fostering closer joint research cooperation on emerging technologies.
•
Strengthening our economic resilience: A retreat by either the EU or U.S. into self-reliance
would be harmful to the transatlantic economy and the cost would be huge. Supply chains
should be strengthened through diversification across the Atlantic, and with like-minded
countries globally. Promoting increased transatlantic trade, innovation and market access
would not only mitigate the unintended collateral impacts of sanctions but create more
opportunities for investment and jobs.
•
Protecting democratic values and institutions: Coordination—if not convergence—on
digital governance is essential to the future of the transatlantic relationship, both in terms of
striking the right regulatory balance between trust and innovation, and in aligning and
collaborating on countering cyber threats, disinformation, etc. Such norms of digital
governance will be stronger and more exportable to open societies in the wider world if they
are agreed between its two largest blocs.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TTC DELIVERABLES: An important overarching priority, across the different TTC topics and workstreams, is that
governments endorse market-led approaches and evidence-based regulation and policies to
trade and technology. This includes a commitment to a level playing field, where participants can
choose the best available technologies and make investments on equal terms. While the
establishment of the TTC framework in itself is encouraging, the U.S. and EU now should shift to
achieving concrete deliverables. We see great potential in the following areas:
•
Strengthening Democratic Resilience and Cybersecurity. The EU and the U.S. should
coordinate the response to cases of electoral interference and attacks on election
infrastructure as well as assisting other democracies to defend themselves against such
actions. This is consistent with G7 commitments4 in these areas, Principle 3 of the Paris Call for
Trust and Security in Cyberspace5, and the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity6.
The EU and U.S. should also cooperate to combat the dissemination of disinformation online.
As they develop legislation on cybersecurity the two sides should coordinate and seek some
measure of policy alignment. We see similar policy challenges emerging in both the U.S. and
4
"G7 Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats” 2018-06-09-defending_democracy-
defense_democratie-en.pdf (international.gc.ca)
5 https://pariscall.international/en/principle 6 https://www.allianceofdemocracies.org/transatlantic-commission-on-election-integrity/
EU on topics like Cybersecurity certification and Incident notification policies. To guarantee
strong cybersecurity, increased harmonization across the Atlantic would make joint responses
more effective. Given the current threat landscape, it is vital to avoid fragmentation in
cybersecurity and digital resilience policies.
•
Norms for Responsible Industry Conduct. The EU and U.S. should cooperate on fostering
ethical and responsible use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) across
businesses of every size and in every industry, promoting the adoption of voluntary codes of
business conduct that aim to prevent a race to the bottom that undermines democratic
values.
•
Norms for Responsible Government Conduct. The EU and U.S. should work together to
develop policies regarding government use of emerging technologies that reinforce
democratic processes, prevent indiscriminate harm, and are consistent with international
human rights law.
•
Open Data. The EU and U.S should encourage responsible open data use, including through
incentives for voluntary private-sector data-sharing across organizational and territorial
boundaries in ways that are in line with EU laws and values. Improved access to and availability
of greater amounts of data, coupled with emerging tools and state of the art technologies will
allow citizens, businesses, researchers, and governments to better leverage the data they
already possess while improving outcomes through enhanced collaboration with partners
around the world. Open data commitments should also emphasize the need to empower small
and medium-sized businesses, create legal clarity, facilitate data usability, promote robust
security safeguards, and be aligned with industry driven standards.
•
Emerging Technology. The U.S. and EU should foster closer joint research cooperation in
areas such as 6G, AI, Quantum and semiconductors to achieve the goal of significantly
boosting transatlantic cooperation on future technologies with the ambition to achieve global
leadership.
•
Fairness in Standards Setting. Any technology standards should continue to be developed
in a voluntary, industry led process, on the basis of maintaining industry’s participation in the
decision making within standard development organizations. Standards should be adopted
in a manner consistent with the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
Committee Decision on International Standards and should not treat persons of the other
party less favorably than citizens of the party.
•
Trustworthy/Responsible AI Principles. It is critical that the EU and U.S. work together to
calibrate regulatory goals on AI principles, in order to jointly promote an approach to AI that
secures democratic values and technological innovation. This should also facilitate aligning the
EU and the U.S. on technology standards in international fora where interests converge and
monitoring the deployment of critical standards. In addition, common standards for testing or
validating systems that embed responsible AI should ultimately lead to mutual recognition to
attain regional regulatory requirements. The second TTC meeting presents an opportunity to
build on already positive outcomes and further cultivate this spirit of collaboration
•
Collaboration on technology supply chains: We encourage continued U.S.-EU collaboration
to create more secure, resilient, and sustainable supply chains and to establish a framework
for identifying critical industries, products and inputs of shared interest therefor including
semiconductor sector and broader ICT ecosystem. The TTC provides the ideal forum to ensure
coordination for programs such as CHIPS and other investments in the broader ecosystem
and creating a joint roadmap for supply chain resilience whilst also identifying quantity and
quality of existing suppliers of specified industries, products and inputs.
•
Carbon Objectives. The EU and U.S. should work to advance the global conversation around
common standards for carbon accounting and measurement, towards measuring the carbon
flows in the economy in terms of reduction, removal, and trade. They should also discuss the
role of data science and technology in supporting and enabling this measurement.
We also
urge governments to convey support for the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI to
monitor carbon sources and emissions and find efficiencies in supply chains and processes.
Given the EU’s green ambitions, and to overcome current dependencies concerning its energy
sourcing, we support the EU’s investments in enhanced connectivity and digitization to drive
the energy transition towards renewables and energy efficiency.
This is an ambitious, but, in our view, achievable agenda. By focusing on these issues, the TTC can
become an essential forum for securing for our collective future.
Signatories:
