The EU-US Pittsburgh Statement, Annex V, provides that TTC Working Group on Global Trade Challenges focuses initially as one of its work strand on avoiding new and unnecessary barriers to trade or investment in products and services of emerging technology.
The European Union and the United States recognise and respect the importance of regulation of goods and services to achieve legitimate policy objectives. They are also aware that such regulations may have unintended consequences and result in barriers to trade orinvestment between them and that such barriers, once implemented, can be challenging to remove. Consequently, the European Union and the United States intend to work to identify and avoid potential new unnecessary barriers to trade in products or services derived from new and emerging technology, while ensuring that legitimate regulatory objectives are achieved.
This work will fully respect each side's regulatory autonomy and regulatory system, and will promote the highest level of openness and transparency and welcome input from all interested stakeholders.
In this context, and in order to allow a targeted discussion on the priorities to be pursued, the EU invites stakeholders to participate to event on avoiding new and unnecessary barriers in products and services of emerging technology that will take place on 29 November 2021, 16h00-17h CET.
The discussion will be structured around the following questions:
- Which significant barriers to trade or investment in the area of new and emerging technologies do you consider risk arising or emerging, e.g. in the context of the digital and green transition of economies or the recovery from the COVID pandemic?
- What concrete actions/co-operation would be needed from the EU and the US side to most effectively prevent/address such barriers?
- Which are the key areas in which the EU and the US should focus work? Which are the solutions/outcomes they should pursue?
- Other priorities/suggestions/questions in relation to avoiding new and unnecessary barriers to trade or investment in products and services of emerging technology?
Stakeholders are invited to share their views and comments during the event (interest can be indicated during registration), as well as submit inputs, and other questions and comments in advance of the event by using the Futurium online platform (EU-US Trade and Technology Council / Working Group 10 Global Trade Challenges).
Practical details
- Date and time: 29 November 2021, 16h00-17h00 CET
- Venue: online via WebEx
- Registration: please REGISTER before Tuesday 25 November 2021 17h00 CET. Attendance is limited to 2 participants per organisation. Registered participants will receive a confirmation e-mail with further information on how to connect in due course. Any change of name should be communicated no later than by 29 November 9h00 CET (day of the event) to TRADE-D1-REQUEST-BOX@ec.europa.eu
Useful information
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Commentaires
During the EU-US TTC Working Group 10 stakeholder event about trade barriers for new and emerging technologies on 29 November, at which Onfido was present, several discussion questions were raised concerning the trade barriers in products and services of emerging technology stakeholders experience. Onfido would like to hereby share some feedback on what action from the EU and the US, and in what areas, is needed to take away trade barriers.
First of all, the EU and the US are two key markets for Onfido, and complying with diverging rulesets in the field of technical standards could pose significant trade and administrative challenges. Therefore, Onfido is in favour of interoperability between the two blocs to facilitate trade. Onfido believes that mutual recognition of conformity assessments for product certification, compliance, testing, and documentation between the EU should ideally be what this interoperability between the two blocs looks like. This interoperability and common technical standards could also allow for the EU and the US to set standards for other parts of the world, which could, for example in the field of AI, allow for the promotion of democratic values and principles.
The uncertainty around international data transfers between the EU and the US since the 2020 CJEU judgment invalidating the EU-US Privacy Shield is something that needs to be overcome. Through the TTC, the two countries must come together and iron out a Privacy Shield replacement that can stand the test of time and allow for transatlantic data transfers to restart without issue. Of course, protecting personal data should also be taken into account in this debate. The Shield’s replacement therefore should have data protection as well as interconnectivity as its two pillars. Through a new regime, data flows between the two continents will restart, allowing for the growth of the EU’s digital single market. The DSM will be strengthened with businesses being able to access more data, as well as more data service providers.
The TTC is also an optimal venue to look at cloud sovereignty. Member States still have a fragmented approach towards this matter. France has been the most vocal proponent of cloud sovereignty. Certain types of businesses storing data in the cloud (ie trust service providers regulated by ANSSI), should do so only with EU-based cloud service providers. Nevertheless, this approach restricts the options EU businesses have, and reduces the competitiveness of the Union as a whole. EU cloud service providers are not faced with international competitive pressures, thus are likely to be providing less developed services to their customers. The threat that third country cloud service providers may pose to European data is indeed real. The approach nevertheless, should not be based on a blanket prohibition, but rather on a risk-based framework. Through the TTC, the EU and the US can work together to build such a risk-based framework to allow EU and US businesses to access cloud services across the Atlantic where there is little to no risk of breach.
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