Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

Today in the spotlight, the EU-US Trade and Technology Council. We'll look at its purpose,

objectives and its role in the context of the wider trade and tech relations between the

EU and the US. Together, the EU and the US.

Together, the EU and the US represents 780 million people who share democratic values and the largest bilateral economic relationship in the world, much larger than either of the

two blocks has with the rest of the world.

Just to give you an idea of the depth of this relation,

US investment in the EU is triple of what it invests in all of Asia,

and EU investment in the US is eight times the amount

what it invests in India and China.

And the digital bond is particularly strong.

The largest supplier of digitally enabled services to the EU in 2019 was the US.

167 billion euros worth and the EU exported 130 billion euros in return.

But this usually close relation came under substantial

strain during President Trump's administration. The imposition of tariffs on imports of European

steel and aluminium by the US, the long-running Airbus Boeing dispute and the disagreements

over digital taxation, and the mechanism to over digital taxation and the mechanism to transfer

personal data from the EU to the US caused heavy friction between the two blocks.

But with the election of President Biden, a new more collaborative chapter in the EU-US relations

opened up. All disputes are being settled and a truth found in the digital

tax area. Both sides are also working on a solution to the privacy shield issue, and Biden's

administration is taking a much more proactive stance towards regulating big tech and setting,

...