Smart Take | The US and EU Tackle Transatlantic Trade and Tech Issues

Video Transcript

• The US and EU Tackle Transatlantic Trade and Tech Issues

  What they're hoping for in June is to have advances on a six industry roadmap, a report on a joint task force on quantum computing and some minor expansions on mutual recognition. The big deliverable, if it can be accomplished for June, which will be a discussion tomorrow, is can we reach agreement on a critical minerals agreement so that the Europeans can benefit from the IRA subsidies?

  A key concern is what's not happening at the TTC. The steel and aluminum dispute has been punted until 2025. There's a new artificial intelligence act that was passed in Europe, and that's of some concern. But of even greater concern is that there is a new digital marketing act that many think unfairly discriminates against the US and some worry that the U.S. helped the E.U. promulgate that new act.

  But also, there are proposed EU regulations on standard essential patents that would weaken the value of these patents, and a worry that that would harm the incentive for innovation. And finally, digital trades and cards are stalled and there's an expiration of a moratorium on duties on electronic transmissions.

  So you've got a lot going on that’s of concern, but not enough forward momentum in the TTC that makes some believe that we need something more robust for a collaborations with Europe.

  At the same time, depending on how things happen this November, we may have less collaboration. So a lot to keep an eye on here in the US-EU collaboration on trade technology.