The second meeting of the Commerce and Technology Council UNITAL UNITED UNITED UNIDA, held on Sunday May 15 and Monday, May 16 in Saclay, Essonne. The two parties have undertaken to avoid a race for subsidies on semiconductors and to coordinate to limit the supply chain breaks created by the Russian aggression.
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In recent years, relations between the United States and the European Union (EU) have not been in good shape. Far from it. After the Trump years, during which they have deteriorated considerably, the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House did not, first, not allowed to completely reverse the trend, even if the Democratic president has a style Less provocative than its thunderous predecessor. But, since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the two allies were clearly closer. In this context, the second meeting of the Commerce and Technology Council US US-ETATS (Trade and Technology Council, TTC), which was held in Saclay in Essonne, Sunday May 15 and Monday, May 16, was better past that the first. From a diplomatic point of view, in any case.
As a reminder, this enclosure had been imagined after a corrosive meeting between Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump, in January 2020, in Davos. The American president then assaulted the president of the commission, recently in post, on the grounds that the Europeans did not spend enough for their defense within NATO. He had claimed, in little reduced terms, that they pay their due, reminding his interlocutor that a way of doing so could be to rebalance trade between the two continents, largely unfavorable in the United States.
It had then been decided to create the TTC – Ursula von der Leyen was accompanied in Davos of two commissioners, Thierry Breton, head of technologies, and Phil Hogan, of trade – to symbolize the will of the two parties to get closer. Immediately created, immediately forgotten, the trade on trade and technology has never met as long as Donald Trump was in power. It was after the election of Joe Biden that we remembered his existence and that it was decided to make it the symbol of a pacified transatlantic relationship.
truce on the Commercial conflicts
Europeans and the United States have concluded a truce on the main commercial conflicts between them – Airbus -Boeing, Steel and Aluminum – and therefore relaunched the TTC. However, his first meeting, in Pittsburgh, on September 29, 2021, almost was canceled after the agreement that Washington had signed with Australia for the supply of nuclear submarines which, in fact, ended the one that Canberra had signed with Paris.
On the European side, the commissioners Margrethe Vestager (competition) and Valdis Dombrovskis (Commerce) made the trip to Saclay. The American part was represented by Gina Raimondo, the American secretary to trade, and Katherine Tai, the American representative to trade. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was also present on Sunday, but he left for the United Arab Emirates pay tribute to the sheikh Khalifa ben Zayed al-Nahyane, president Emirati who died on Friday.
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