Brussels, 4 April 2024
The sixth ministerial meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will be held in Leuven, Belgium today. It will be co-chaired by European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, and Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, joined by Commissioner Thierry Breton, and hosted by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The TTC is a vehicle for the EU and the US to discuss and coordinate approaches to key trade and technology issues in a context of increasing geopolitical challenges. With this in mind, the meeting will focus on the outcomes of ongoing joint work on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, 6G and on topics such as standardisation, online platforms and secure connectivity. The meeting will also concentrate on the advances made to promote more sustainable and secure transatlantic trade, for example through cooperation on export controls, investment screening, green procurement, e-invoicing, and supply chains and continued work on green tech conformity assessment.
This afternoon, EU and US representatives will also engage with stakeholders representing industry, academia and civil society to exchange views on priority areas of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council and discuss the way forward for transatlantic cooperation on trade and technology.
The EU and the US launched the EU-US Trade and Technology Council at their summit in Brussels on 15 June 2021. Its inaugural ministerial meeting took place in Pittsburgh on 29 September 2021. This was followed by a second meeting in Paris on 16 May 2022, a third meeting in College Park, Maryland, in December 2022, a fourth meeting in Luleå, Sweden, in May 2023 and a fifth meeting in Washington DC in January 2024.