24.3.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 132/77 Wednesday 6 October 2021
33.
Encourages the Biden administration to swiftly carry out its announced plans to close the Guantanamo detention facility; regrets the fact that almost 20 years after the establishment of the facility, 40 prisoners remain detained, including five who were cleared for release under the Obama administration; calls on the EU and its Member States to offer their assistance to facilitate the process;
34.
Encourages the US to guarantee fair and open access to essential services such as the healthcare system and social protection schemes to a larger share of the population; encourages the newly appointed Biden administration to take concrete actions to regulate possession of weapons among US citizens;
35.
Highlights that the transatlantic community is faced with a broad array of unprecedented common challenges, ranging from the fight against terrorism to hybrid threats, climate change, disinformation, cyberattacks, emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) and a shifting global power balance, as well as the resulting challenge to the international rules-based order;
Enhanced cooperation on international trade and investments
36.
Stresses the need to work together with the US, building on positive momentum, on strengthening the multilateral trading system and reforming the World Trade Organization; welcomes the outcome of the EU-US summit of 15 June 2021 ‘Towards a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership’ as a sign of a revived and constructive engagement; welcomes the Understanding on a Cooperative Framework for Large Civil Aircraft; takes note of the recognition in the EU-US summit statement that the US’s application of tariffs on imports from the EU under US Section 232 have led to tensions in the transatlantic relationship and salutes the explicit commitment in the same statement to resolve existing differences on steel and aluminium overcapacity before the end of the year; considers the establishment of several platforms for permanent discussion, such as the Trade & Technology Council and the EU-US Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue, essential as they will further enable transatlantic commerce, and urges the Commission to set up an efficient and inclusive structure on the EU side for the Trade & Technology Council as soon as possible; welcomes the establishment of a Joint EU-US COVID Manufacturing and Supply Chain Taskforce;
37.
Stresses that the Trade & Technology Council is part of the positive transatlantic trade agenda, with its ultimate aim being to enshrine democratic values and ethics in new technologies in order to become a transparent institutional structure and lead the global digital transformation; welcomes in this regard the fact that the inaugural meeting has taken place as planned despite tensions which need to be discussed in an open and frank manner; points out that it would be possible to obtain some quick gains which would enhance bilateral trade, and therefore urges both sides to focus on concrete tangible outcomes; welcomes in this regard the outcomes of the first Trade & Technology Council meeting held on 29 September in Pittsburgh which adopted concrete themes for each of the 10 working groups; supports, among commitments, the commitment to cooperate on avoiding new and unnecessary barriers to trade in new and emerging technologies, on investment screening and the export of dual-use goods, as well as the commitment to improve the effectiveness of policies that address non-market and trade-distorting policies and practices; welcomes the identification of specific themes such as addressing the challenges posed by non-market economies, and cooperating on labour rights and trade-related climate policies in the Global Trade Challenges Working Group; underlines the importance of cooperation on international technology standard-setting; calls for the establishment of a Sub-Committee on Trade & Technology within the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue to complement the executive’s role in the Trade & Technology Council and in order to exercise democratic scrutiny over this Council; stresses that the Trade & Technology Council is not a forum for the negotiation of an EU-US trade agreement, without prejudice to future initiatives to do so;
38.
Underlines that the European Union and the United States have the most integrated economic relationship in the world, which is also the largest and deepest bilateral trade and investment relationship, with trade in goods and services accounting for more than EUR 1 trillion per year; recalls that the EU and the US economies together account for more than 40 % of global GDP and for nearly a third of world trade flows;
39.
Emphasises the importance of reinvigorating our Transatlantic trade relationship as historical allies and trading partners, not least given the current COVID-19 crisis, with the aim of promoting multilateralism, fostering an open, rules-based trading system and finding common solutions to pressing global challenges, including global health;