PITTSBURGH / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and the European Union began talks on Wednesday in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) aimed at strengthening their trade relations, particularly in the field of technologies and semiconductors in order to better hold head to China.
The newly created EU-US Council on Trade and Technology (TTC) will have to iron out differences between the two blocs after the tug-of-war started by the administration of former President Donald Trump over steel and aluminum.
The first meeting of this new forum was for a time threatened by the anger of France after the alliance concluded behind its back by Washington with Australia and the United Kingdom, which resulted in the cancellation of a mega-order of French submarines by Canberra.
The Europeans have finally agreed to a joint declaration in which the EU and the United States commit to strengthening semiconductor supply chains, the factories of which are overwhelmingly located in Asia and whose global shortage severely handicaps the technological sector.
The reference to a second TTC meeting in the first quarter of 2022, however, was removed from the draft declaration.
The meeting in Pittsburgh, the former American capital of the steel industry converted into tech, notably brought together on the American side the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and the Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and the European side the Commissioner for Commerce Valdis Dombrovskis and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
(David Lawder in Pittsburgh and Nandita Bose in Washington, with Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
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