Think Tank: EU Can Still Seek Export Control Cooperation With US Despite ‘Dormant’ TTC
The EU should take lessons learned from the “effectively dormant” U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (see 2503280039) and translate those into a new strategy for coordinating export controls and other trade issues with allies, the Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank said in a report released this month.
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Although the TTC had “obvious” limits, the think tank recommended ways in which the council’s “most effective elements should be integrated into a diversified European foreign economic policy,” especially as the bloc works with allies to “forge common ground on the China challenge.”
One recommendation calls on the EU to continue trying to cooperate with the U.S. on sensitive trade issues despite the ongoing tariff tensions begun by the Trump administration. The two sides should specifically continue sharing information on export licensing, the think tank said, and should encourage more “bottom-up” collaboration among EU and U.S. agencies as opposed to high-level political dialogues.
“This kind of 'technical' dialogue delivers tangible outcomes, harmonizes the rules, and boosts European industrial resilience in the face of strategic competition,” it said. “EU/U.S. summits can offer the political framework needed to steer this cooperation and finalize the resulting agreements.”
It also called on the two sides to “maintain the most effective operational mechanisms of the TTC,” specifically pointing to the semiconductor supply chain alert system -- a mechanism that was meant to help the EU and U.S. address early-stage chip supply issues (see 2205130071) -- and “cooperation on export controls.”
Still, the think tank noted that the Trump administration has so far signaled a “return to unilateralism.” It said the U.S. is likely to “tighten export controls on semiconductor technologies, before exacting compliance with its extraterritorial laws from countries with significant nanoelectronics industries.”
It called on the EU to also focus on controlling transfers of sensitive technologies, saying the bloc needs to update its control lists and carry out “robust risk assessments” across the fields of AI, quantum technologies, biotechnology, semiconductors and other critical technologies.
“Once these foundations are in place, Europe could pursue alignment with like-minded partners such as Japan, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.”