The EU and US will this week embark on a tricky effort to deepen ties on tech regulation, but with France resisting the project in the wake of a row with Washington over a submarine deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-level talks will begin in the US city of Pittsburgh on Wednesday despite efforts by Paris to delay the meeting in retaliation for a pact between the US, Australia and Britain — dubbed AUKUS — that saw Canberra scrap a multi-billion-dollar submarine order from France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU-US Trade and Tech Council was set up after a summit in June to look at issues including trying to attune their strategies on regulating internet giants and defend democratic values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council came at the request of the Europeans, who are seeking concrete signs of increased transatlantic cooperation after years of tension under former president Donald Trump, especially over trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden’s administration will be represented by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the European side, EU executive vice presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis will lead talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vestager, the EU’s tech policy supremo, said the talks would attempt to enhance cooperation “in the areas where there is a shared sense of values being two big, old democracies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unspoken in her comments was the rise of China, with Washington understood to be pressing its EU partners to join forces in isolating Beijing on the global stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is being resisted in Europe, where powerful member states France and Germany are reluctant to blindly follow Washington’s increasing assertiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“European officials want to avoid the TTC simply becoming an unproductive exercise at China-bashing,” said former EU trade boss Cecilia Malmstrom and analyst Chad Bown in a paper for the Peterson Institute in Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks in Pittsburgh, a rust-belt city that has grown into a tech hub, are only the first instalment of the Trade and Tech Council, with another round expected in the spring, Vestager said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU diplomats said France sharply criticised the talks at a meeting on Friday, reminding member states that previous attempts to deepen trade ties with Washington led nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ‘No place in a democracy’ –<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dombrovskis, who is also the EU’s trade commissioner, cautioned that the new effort was not an attempt to clinch a trade deal, with memories still fresh of the failed attempt to strike an ambitious accord during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the EU’s 27 member states, also failed to finalise a smaller scale deal with Donald Trump, beyond a zero-tariff pact on lobsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not like a free trade agreement,” the former Latvian prime minister told reporters. “It’s more about long-term benefits.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dombrovskis pointed to potential cooperation on banning unwanted foreign investments or tackling supply chain problems, such as with microchips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks will be broken into 10 working groups on a wide range of issues, with Vestager looking to find common ground on how to curb Big Brother — such as in preventing excesses in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We do not find that these practices should have a home in a democracy,” she said. “I have a strong feeling that this is something that is really shared with the Americans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks will take place while both sides remain at loggerheads over the steel and aluminium tariffs that were imposed by Trump, but which Biden has yet to remove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the tariffs, Dombrovskis said: “We are engaging very seriously with the US and we are mindful also (of the) timelines, that by December 1, this issue should be solved.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The EU and US will this week embark on a tricky effort to deepen ties on tech regulation, but with France resisting the project in the wake of a row with Washington over a submarine deal. High-level talks will begin in the US city of Pittsburgh on Wednesday despite efforts by Paris to delay the meeting in retaliation for a pact between the US, Australia and Britain — dubbed AUKUS — that saw Canberra scrap a multi-billion-dollar submarine order from France. The EU-US Trade and Tech Council was set up after a summit in June to look at issues including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[544,545],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n