Hosted by the Trade and Technology Dialogue (TTD)

19 July 2022, 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM (ET) / 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (CEST)

The Joint EU-US Stakeholder Outreach Meeting aimed at updating relevant stakeholders about the latest developments of the WG7 and at collecting comments and suggestions for the way forward.

In the introductory remarks, EU and US co-chairs commented on the outcomes of the second ministerial meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) held in Paris-Saclay in May 2022. They underlined the importance of the TTC as a platform that facilitated a swift coordination of export restrictions to Russia and Belarus. They also acknowledged  the need to refine and further advance the cooperation agenda between the US, the EU and their allies and partners.

In the ensuing first session (latest developments on export control), the EU presented the Work Programme of TTC WG7 and stressed that the latest ministerial statement in Paris-Saclay emphasises EU-US commitment to keep working on issues related to human rights, emerging technologies and cybersecurity. Spain further presented possible options for improving EU-US practice on re-export of certain controlled items and argued that the TTC is the appropriate forum to foster deeper cooperation in the field.

During the open discussion that followed, stakeholders raised several issues. It was remarked that companies were facing several challenges due to regulatory divergences between the US and the EU, including regarding the control lists. The opportunity to further align export control of intangible transfers – including through the cloud - was also mentioned several times, while re-export is considered a very relevant issue by the exporting community in terms of trade facilitation. Some participants remarked that academia and the research community could be more involved in the work of WG7, and enquired whether dedicated outreach to the research community could be organised in future. In their replies, EU and US speakers confirmed that, despite some terminological differences, the US and the EU export control classifications are essentially similar, while the WG7 is working to further align interpretation and implementation of export control rules and control lists. EU and US will also consider dedicated outreach to the research community.

In the second session, the speakers focused on the sanctions restricting trade with Russia and Belarus following Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine. They emphasised that the sanctions applied to Russia and Belarus were aimed at impairing Russian military capabilities and not at harming Russian people. They also underlined the need to cooperate with allies and partners to make sanctions effective. Several stakeholders asked for more clarity and further guidance to companies that have to comply with export restrictions. It was emphasised that this was a daunting challenge for companies trading dual-use items. Replying to these queries, the speakers recognized that the adoption of sanctions was and remains a complex issue, and confirmed that authorities will continue to outreach and support businesses seeking to comply with export restrictions to Russia and Belarus.

In their final remarks, the EU reiterated that stakeholders can refer to the Commission’s Futurium platform for updated information about the work of the TTC as well as for exchanging comments and suggestions.