US and EU: common front for the trade of emerging technologies

Biden collects the heavy legacy of protectionism and tariffs against the EU imposed by the Trump administration, suspended temporarily in March, and seeks, by identifying a common enemy, to strengthen a strategic alliance that can project the partnership into the future. In seeking agreement with the European Union, the US president reiterated the “sacred obligation” of mutual defense established by Article 5 of the Treaty, reassuring: “I want to tell Europeans that America exists”. That China is a collective concern is no mystery. Prime Minister Draghi himself, in the statements on the sidelines of the NATO summit reiterated that “the dominant political theme was what attitude the G7 should have towards China and all autocracies in general.” The line of other leaders such as Merkel and Macron was softer, seeking a balance, but all expressed concerns about the respect for human rights and the climate footprint of Beijing’s actions. Concerns that converged in the announcement of the establishment of a US-EU Council on Commerce and Technology, which will have, according to the first declarations, three main purposes. First of all, to establish a new global standard for the trade of emerging technologies. Then the promotion and defense of democratic values ​​also online, and to foster collaboration between States United and Europe in the most avant-garde research and development. All to build a “democratic common front” and prevent “China or other autocracies from writing the rules in this area for the 21st century, ”said Jake Sullivan, White House advisor for national security. The new US-EU council will also work on a global coordination of the regulation of tech platforms and the standards required for new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.In the last decade, China has made significant public investments in the technology branch. with the result of having a digital economy developed but controlled by the state. The Internet is not the realm of free expression, but a place where governmental thinking is present, censorship is not lacking, and foreign sites that refuse to comply with the rules can be blocked. There was also no shortage of interventions by the Beijing government on local private tech companies to forcibly acquire their technologies (think of the interventions with the expedient of antitrust sanctions on the e-commerce giant Alibaba). Against the Chinese threat, a new era of US-EU cooperation seems to be upon us, which had reached an all-time low under Trump, and which sees Biden put aside, for the moment, the concept of “strategic autonomy” of the European Union. defined these days by the president of the United States as “an incredibly strong and alive entity”, but not for this to be left alone to fight its battles. Especially since there is not only China to face, but it is also necessary to take cover from possible alliances with Russia in a new eastern front that has a nostalgic flavor of the Cold War.