Key outcomes of the fourth ministerial meeting of the European Union (EU)-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) that recently took place in Lulea, Sweden, include promoting sustainability and new opportunities for trade and investment, and increasing use of digital tools to enhance trade.

It also includes robust trans-Atlantic cooperation on emerging technologies for joint EU-US leadership and standardisation work on critical and emerging technologies.

The meeting was co-chaired by European Commission executive vice presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo, and US trade representative Katherine Tai.

Both sides are working together to amplify the potential of the transatlantic marketplace as a catalyst for decarbonisation and a green transition, a joint statement issued by both sides said. The Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade was launched at the third EU-US TTC ministerial meeting in December last year.

The Clean Energy Incentives Dialogue, launched on March 10 this year, will facilitate information-sharing on non-market policies and practices of third parties to serve as the basis for joint or parallel action and coordinated advocacy on these issues in multilateral or other fora.

Both sides will continue exploring ways to increase the use of digital tools in transatlantic trade-related transactions, as well as ways in which the EU and the United States may enhance cooperation on trade facilitation to simplify and modernise export and import processes.

At the meeting, both sides also held their second principal-level session of the Trade and Labour Dialogue (TALD) that brought together senior representatives from labour, business and government from both sides of the Atlantic.

The meeting discussed eradication of forced labour from global trade and from global supply chains and to examine the impact of the green transition on workers.

Both sides welcomed a new set of joint recommendations on combatting forced labour in global supply chains.

Both partners have accelerated cooperation to develop a common vision and industry road map on research and development for 6G wireless communication systems. 6G is expected to start replacing 5G as the predominant commercial cellular wireless standard by 2030.