We use cookies to improve your browsing experience. Necessary cookies are required to support essential features of the Council's website. Optional cookies help us produce anonymous and aggregated statistical reports to better serve your needs.
With your permission, we will use cookies to produce aggregated, anonymous data about our visitors' browsing and behaviour on our website. We will use this data to improve your experience on our website.
The Foreign Affairs Council, in its Trade configuration, took stock of the state of play on the key issues in EU-US trade relations and prospects for our continued engagement with the US.
Ministers focused on the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC), ahead of its fourth meeting next week in Sweden (Luleå, 30-31 May). They recalled that this platform is of key importance in the current geostrategic context and expected further concrete and balanced outcomes in the short term and beyond.
The TTC constitutes one of the most important events during the Swedish EU presidency and is an important platform for deepening the cooperation with the US.
Johan Forssell, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade
Continuing engagement to find pragmatic solutions to EU concerns over the discriminatory elements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including reaching a targeted Critical Minerals Agreement and increasing transparency and cooperation on respective green tech incentives’ programmes was also one of the requests of the Ministers.
Continuing the work on a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium was also seen as a priority. Any agreed solution must put a definite end to the US “Section 232" tariffs and thus normalise bilateral trade in steel and aluminium, respect the relevant EU legislation and be compatible with the WTO rules.
Ministers held a discussion on EU-China trade relations. The strategic debate focused on existing and potential critical trade dependencies with China and the exploration of instruments which would be needed to handle those risks. Ministers also discussed how trade and investment relations with China could be rebalanced through engagement and how to support efforts at the EU level in this regard.
The Commission explained that the economic de-risking strategy is to be developed across 4 areas:
making the EU’s economy and industry more competitive and resilient
better using the EU’s existing toolbox of trade instruments
China’s changing policies may require developing new defensive tool for some critical sectors
alignment with partners
The Commission informed about the preparations for the upcoming EU-China High-Level Dialogue for Economy and Trade, expected to take place before the end of the year.
World Trade Organization (WTO): preparation for the 13th Ministerial Conference
Ministers received information from the Commission about the latest updates around the preparation of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13).
The MC13 package is expected to include the following:
restoring the Dispute Settlement Mechanism/Appellate Body
the extension of the e-commerce moratorium and the e-commerce work programme
the WTO reform
the agreement and the negotiations on fisheries subsidies
agriculture with a special focus on food security
development, special and differential treatment, and Least Developed Countries Graduation and LDC issues.
plurilateral negotiations on Investment Facilitation and e-commerce,
environment/sustainable development and the plurilateral negotiations on the matter
some pending files from the previous Ministerial Conference
Ministers were briefed by the Commission on the state of play of ongoing bilateral trade negotiations. The Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis addressed the trade negotiations with Australia and indicated that the aim is to reach an agreement as soon as possible, hopefully by mid July, provided that the substance is right. He also referred to negotiations with India, Indonesia and Kenya (the latter being in the final stretch) and mentioned the negotiations with Eastern and Southern Africa.
The Commission also debriefed Ministers about the latest developments in EU-Mercosur negotiations on an “additional legal instrument” focusing on issues related to sustainability and climate change.
The TTC constitutes one of the most important events during the Swedish EU presidency and is an important platform for deepening the cooperation with the US.