EU's Dombrovskis Says TTC Needs to Produce Results, Including on Green Issues
The top trade official in the EU, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said that it's important that the upcoming U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting deliver "concrete and tangible results." He said Nov. 21 in Brussels: "I am hopeful that we will deliver some attractive results to facilitate trade. I am thinking notably of conformity assessment in specific sectors, and how to make better use of digital tools to ease trans-Atlantic trade.
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"We plan to showcase the work done with the U.S. on issues related to non-market practices and economic coercion.
"We will also hold a meeting of the Trade and Labour Dialogue, focussing on forced labour and the impact of the digital transition on our economies."
Dombrovskis said the EU will propose a new sustainable trade initiative in the TTC, which will aim to have the EU and the U.S. cooperate on standards, such as on fast chargers for electric vehicles.
"Related to this, of course, are the challenges created by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
"The IRA contains clear discriminatory elements, which would hurt EU companies and their possibilities to export to the U.S., as well as our capacity to compete fairly with U.S. products on third country markets," he said. He said the EU wants EU exports to qualify for incentives just as U.S. vehicles qualify for EV incentives in Europe.
Given the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine, it's "more necessary than ever to show that we not only stand -- but also act -- together," he said. In times like these, "we should be fully focussed on building alliances in these important sectors, whether it be batteries, renewable energy, or recycling. We should not be creating unnecessary disruptions or potential new disputes."
Dombrovskis said the task force on the IRA is a place to work on viable solutions to the EU's concerns, but said the TTC meeting will also be a time to see where things stand.
"We will also continue to closely coordinate our work on export controls in view of Russia’s war on Ukraine," he said. "And we will deepen our work on investment screening, in order to ensure robust foreign investment screening mechanisms to address certain security risks."