On September 29, the first ministerial-level meeting of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council is due to take place in Pittsburgh. Agreed during President Joe Biden’s visit to Europe in June, the TTC is an ambitious effort to foster closer transatlantic cooperation on a broad range of topics. Although the forum is not specifically aimed at China, it will be a first real test of whether Washington and Brussels can channel their shared concerns about Beijing into concrete action.
Tensions over the Afghanistan pullout and Australia’s decision to drop a major submarine contract with France in favor of a deal with the US and UK have injected new uncertainty into transatlantic ties and the TTC itself: Paris is reportedly pressing the European Commission to delay the meeting in Pittsburgh. Though the diplomatic rift is real, the shared US and EU concerns that led to the creation of the TTC are not going away. When the TTC does meet, we expect to see signals that both sides are committed to working together in areas like export controls, investment screening, semiconductor supply chains, artificial intelligence, and possibly forced labor.
