Webinar on Institutionalising Global Challenges: A Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council

From City Law School in London (Thursday, 29 April 2021, 17:00 – 18:30, register here):

The EU’s proposed EU-US Joint Agenda for Global Change includes a Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council, proposing a loose institutionalisation of key global challenges currently not well covered or dealt with by, for example, the WTO.

A Transatlantic Legislators Dialogue between the European Parliament and the US Congress is on-going since 1972. Simiarly, Transatlantic annual summits continue to be held since the 1990s.

There is direct contact between the US Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the European Union since 2000, in the form of periodic judicial visits and heightened mutual adjudication themes and tools.

What forms of power and authority could such a council have? Does it have a future outside of reform of global institutions? Is it essential to build back trust in international organisations, i.e. to have a transatlantic powerhouse combination on core planks of the global economy, currently patchily dealt with by international law and international organisations?

Do ‘soft’ or light-touch institutionalisations such as this proposal matter in the current state of global governance? How esoteric is the crossover between trade and technology?

Will reforms of existing global institutions e.g. WTO reforms or the reform of global taxation (e.g. a Digital Services tax) be most crucial to the transatlantic alliance in global challenges?

Speakers:

Chair:

Elaine Fahey