The partnership between the EU and the USA is looking up – at least that is what EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis thinks. Common standards for employees and consumers are the goal.
After the most recent upsets in the transatlantic partnership, EU representatives assessed the first meeting of a new European-American trade and technology council as a success.
“Today marks a new chapter in our transatlantic relations,” wrote EU Vice-Commission President Valdis Dombrovskis on Twitter after the talks in the US city of Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The first meeting of the council was “a milestone” in the relationship between the US and the EU. Both sides have agreed to jointly develop standards and rules to support companies, workers and consumers in the 21st century.
Dombrovskis had the talks on the European side together with EU Vice-Commission President Margrethe Vestager. For the USA, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, Trade Minister Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai took part. Blinken spoke on Twitter after the meeting of a “stimulating discussion”.
Both sides then published a joint statement in which they stated, among other things, the goal of working together more on technology standards and securing supply chains, and of coordinating closely on how to counteract unfair trade practices by countries such as China. In particular, they want to address delivery bottlenecks for semiconductors through closer cooperation. Ten working groups are to develop specific plans for the individual topics in the coming months.
The meeting followed the recent violent resentment between the US and Europe. The background to this is the European horror that Washington has been negotiating a new security pact for the Indo-Pacific region with the UK and Australia behind the back of the EU in the past few months. The government in Paris in particular is furious because the alliance broke a EUR 56 billion submarine contract between Australia and France. In light of this, France had questioned whether the Pittsburgh meeting should take place at all. The state only approved the text for the final declaration after making corrections.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
