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 an 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 a margin 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 it was softer, looking for a balance, but everyone expressed concern about respect for human rights and the climate footprint of Beijing’s actions.
Concerns that have converged in the announcement of the establishment of a US-EU Council on Trade and Technology, which will have, according to the first statements, three main purposes. First of all, to establish a new global standard for trading in emerging technologies. Then the promotion and defense of democratic values also online, and foster collaboration between the United States 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 twenty-first century,” said Jake Sullivan, White House National Security Advisor. 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.
Over the past decade, China has made massive public investments in technology, resulting in a developed but state-controlled digital economy. 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 seesand Biden put aside, for the moment, the concept of “strategic autonomy” of the European Union, defined in these days by the president of the United States as “an incredibly strong and lively entity”, But not for this reason to be left alone to fight her 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.