ITI Issues Priorities as EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council Takes Shape
WASHINGTON – Today, global tech trade association ITI published a set of near-term priorities for the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) ahead of its anticipated launch. The priorities focus on process and stakeholder engagement, the need for common guiding principles across TTC working groups, and recommended commitments to promote international regulatory compatibility and transatlantic leadership in global trade and tech policy.
“We strongly support the goals of growing bilateral trade and investment, avoiding unnecessary barriers to trade, and strengthening global cooperation on digital policy, technology, and supply chains,” said Rob Strayer, ITI Executive Vice President of Policy. “We look forward to working with U.S. and EU policymakers to ensure the TTC pursues tangible, near-term outcomes, and encourage prioritization of the following deliverables as a means of meaningfully deepening transatlantic trade and collaboration.”
In its document, ITI identifies key process objectives, guiding principles, and substantive commitments to guide the work of the TTC, including:
- Establishing structured and transparent mechanisms for engagement with the private sector and civil society to provide updates on the status of TTC engagement and solicit input;
- Codifying and publishing guiding principles for transatlantic development of coordinated, trade-facilitative regulatory approaches to risk-based digital and technology policy to inform the work of the working groups;
- Establishing a commitment to base regulatory or procurement requirements on international, industry-driven, voluntary technical standards – including those for digital services and green procurement;
- Supporting and advancing the OECD Trusted Government Access to Data held by the Private Sector workstream to swiftly elaborate a set of common and coherent practices and legal guarantees from across OECD countries to reconcile law enforcement and national security access to data with ensuring privacy and other important safeguards;
- Taking concrete actions to strengthen engagement and cooperation to improve the resilience of semiconductor and other strategic supply chains and ensure export controls alignment, where they are necessary, on identified and targeted software and technologies; and
- Establishing commitments on expanding research, development, and deployment of trusted 5G network infrastructure and applications globally.
Read the full priorities here.
ITI has long supported the establishment of the TTC, including issuing recommendations ahead of the U.S.-EU Summit in June, a public statement (otwiera się w nowej karcie) calling for a forum to enhance bilateral cooperation and prevent the emergence of market access barriers and specific recommendations for (otwiera się w nowej karcie) the creation of a Trade & Technology Council published earlier in 2021.
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