IBM welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC). We believe the TTC is a unique opportunity for the EU and the US to forge global technology rules based on their shared values and their commitments to open markets and fair competition. The TTC has the potential to become an agile framework that will help the transatlantic partners drive technological innovation, economic growth and job creation, generate the trust and resilience that our interconnected economy needs, as well as create solutions for the energy transition.

To that end, IBM believes the EU and the US should prioritize collaboration in research and open trade in critical technologies such as semiconductors, AI, Cloud and Quantum.

Please find attached the full list of IBM's recommendations to the TTC.

Working Group 1: Technology Standards

In recent years, some countries have increasingly enforced their activity in international standards organizations. This creates challenges and may in some instances result in concerns around certain values being included in standardization proposals. The U.S. and the EU should share common strategic approaches and must act as like-minded partners who operate on the same set of shared values. More specifically, IBM calls on the establishment of a Standards Cooperation Mechanism for emerging technologies. Such mechanism should focus on:

- Seeking a common approach to human-centric, risk-based AI regulation and standards, building on the work done by experts such as the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group and NIST's ongoing efforts to develop an AI Risk Management Framework. Such common approach should be based on principles of accountability, transparency, fairness and security.

- Developing a joint approach to strengthen EU and U.S. leadership in international standardization bodies and ensure that transatlantic interests and values are reflected in the development of standards. The US and the EU should seek to closely align this approach with other like-minded countries, including Canada, Japan, the UK, and Australia.

- Allowing for equal access to EU and U.S. standardization systems without discrimination. Both should look back at a long history of trusted collaboration on standardization. For decades, U.S. and EU companies, with their respective subsidiaries and affiliates, have proven to be trusted and responsible participants on all levels including decision-making. These mutual bonds should be strengthened and excluding respective stakeholders from participation in decision- making committees should be avoided.

- Establishing a regular industry consultation process on standardization priorities.