EU and US officials seek trade and tech alignments that might survive a Trump return
- Trade and Technology Council meeting, which begins Thursday, aims for agreements that would remain attractive to the former US president, should he be re-elected
- A joint push to supplant China’s dominance of the next generation of broadband networks is expected, but a deal on critical minerals is not
EU and US officials meet in the Belgian city of Leuven on Thursday for talks aimed at future-proofing their relationship against the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House.
The two-day summit will aim to lock in collaboration on issues around trade and technology that would be difficult for the Eurosceptic former president to abandon, should he be re-elected.
“We are working towards making sure that whoever sits in the White House or the Berlaymont will consider it attractive to continue sitting down and cooperating,” said a senior EU official, referring to European elections in June and the US presidential election in November.
At the sixth meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai, along with EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis, industry head Thierry Breton and competition tsar Margrethe Vestager, are expected to announce closer cooperation on advanced technologies, including 6G mobile communications, artificial intelligence and solar energy supply chains.
In what will be the last TTC meeting before the elections, they will take stock of what has been done across 10 working groups and 2 1/2 years.