The EU-U.S. Trade and Tech Council will proceed as planned on September 29 in Pittsburgh, the European Commission confirmed Thursday.
“The Commission confirms that the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will take place in Pittsburgh next week,” Commission spokesperson Miriam GarcÃa Ferrer tweeted.
France’s fury over a new security alliance between the U.S., U.K. and Australia had raised doubts about whether the TTC would take place as scheduled. But U.S. President Joe Biden sought to calm tensions on Wednesday in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, conceding Washington should have consulted Paris over an Indo-Pacific security pact, especially since it scuppered a multi-billion dollar submarine supply deal Paris had planned with Canberra.
EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis also tweeted today that he and Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager will meet with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken as well as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, saying: “Strategic alliances are about shaping common approaches and also overcoming difficulties.”
Vestager tweeted a nearly identical message.
The meeting will focus on global shortages of semiconductor supplies, according to the Commission. “The TTC will address short-term semiconductor issues in Pittsburgh,” GarcÃa Ferrer tweeted. “Following in-depth discussion at EUCO in October, conversations on mid- and longer-term strategic semiconductor issues will begin in TTC working groups to prepare for the next TTC in Europe.”
