Europeans and Americans have planned to meet in Pittsburgh, this former industrial city in Pennsylvania now converted into tech, on Wednesday September 29 and Thursday September 30, in order to renew the transatlantic link damaged under the Trump era. Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, and Katherine Tai, Trade Representative, will receive Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager, both vice-presidents of the European Commission, who are negotiating on behalf of the Twenty seven.
During President Joe Biden’s visit to Brussels in June, the two sides agreed to create a US-European Trade and Technology Council (TTC). Its objective: to deepen their commercial ties and strengthen their cooperation in technology.
Since then, Washington and Brussels have not moved forward on the conflict between them over steel and aluminum, which they put on hold until the end of 2021. Above all, the White House has inflicted two snub to its allies – the withdrawal of American troops without warning from Kabul at the end of August and the surprise creation of an alliance with the United Kingdom and Australia (Aukus) two weeks later – which cast doubt on Mr. Biden’s real willingness to cooperate with the Old Continent.
In retaliation, France, which, along with the Aukus, saw Canberra cancel an order for submarines for the benefit of the Americans and the British, sought to convince its European partners to postpone the TTC meeting. Without success: the Atlanticists (the Baltic countries) or the defenders of free trade (Denmark, Ireland) refused to do so. Emmanuel Macron finally buried the hatchet, after a telephone interview with Joe Biden on September 22.
Relentless war on China
“To mark our bad mood, there will be no press conference”, entrusted a senior official of the Commission. For the rest, the Afghan and Aukus crises should be mentioned by European leaders in their exchanges with their hosts, but they should not substantially modify the outcome of the discussions.
This Pittsburgh meeting must first and foremost mark a work program between the two continents on subjects relating to the regulation of digital platforms, the supervision of artificial intelligence, technological standards, the shortage of semi -conductors or the control of foreign investments and exports in certain strategic areas. Ten working groups will be created for this purpose.
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