Transatlantic Climate and Trade Cooperation after the EU-US Summit

The EU-US Summit on 20 October 2023 has resulted in a high-profile setback in transatlantic climate and trade cooperation. Despite intense pre-summit efforts, both the so-called Global Steel and Aluminium Arrangement and Critical Raw Materials Agreement negotiations did not deliver the desired results and hit respective roadblocks. As negotiations continue in the months to come, officials on both sides are now preparing for the Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting in Washington DC scheduled for December and may or may not salvage agreements in GSA and CRM talks at the TTC margins. 

In this discussion, the panellists analysed the causes for the current negotiation impasse and provide an outlook for possible landing zones and benefits of such agreements. Moreover, the conversation highlighted other - potentially more fruitful - areas of transatlantic climate and trade cooperation, including the evolving green trade agenda of the TTC and cooperation on climate and trade nexus policy issues in multilateral and plurilateral fora.