The US-EU Trade and Technology Council: Assessing the record on data and technology issues
To date, the US-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) has provided mixed results in solving digital policy issues. However, after three meetings, it is now clear that the role of the TTC is not to address direct regulatory controversies but to seek “success stories” and set the stage for future collaboration in pressing data and technology policy issues.
In the last year and a half, the TTC has achieved tangible results in several areas, developing into a prime forum for US-EU alignment on the impact of digitalization on democracy. First, it has endorsed the Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI) and increased support for human rights defenders online. Second, it has successfully positioned itself as the framework to coordinate governance approaches to emerging technologies, publishing a roadmap for transatlantic cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) and identifying quantum technologies as another priority.
The DFI and the Joint AI Roadmap are the first two success stories of the TTC. Prior to their endorsement, both the European Union and the United States had a shared vision about the urgency to defend an open and free cyberspace and to establish a trustworthy transatlantic AI area. In addition, both the White House and the European Commission agreed that the measures had to be future facing instead of reactive to legislation, especially in light of shared perceived external challenges like the rise of authoritarian digital regimes, such as China.
While these three aspects have facilitated the birth of the DFI and the Joint AI Roadmap, the TTC also faces a dilemma. Different approaches to technology and digital governance and the lack of regulatory autonomy make the TTC best suited to address emerging issues that do not require changes in legislation. Yet, this is precisely where stakeholders see the value of the TTC, which faces several unresolved questions challenging its continuity, such as how domestic politics will affect US or EU commitment to the TTC or whether it will remain important, especially for the business community, without having regulatory authority.
-Considering these challenges, there are five things that the TTC can do to remain an important forum of US-EU cooperation in technology and digital issues:
- Make AI a test case and build from the lessons of the Joint AI Roadmap.
- Engage in issues where there is an initial strong value alignment and no regulation.
- Work on moonshot ideas such as the “metaverse” or low-earth orbit governance.
- Take oversight over the special task forces it has created to tackle critical issues such as the US Inflation Reduction Act.
- Think more actively about how to push its efforts into multilateral forums with like-minded partners.
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