Joël Ruet, auteur sur The Bridge Tank

4th Nanjing/Paris Forum on innovation: towards state-regulated technological partnerships?

Posted on 25 June 202125 June 2021 by Joël Ruet

On Thursday the 24^th of June 2021, the Nanjing/Paris Innovation Partnership and the 4th Sino-French Innovation Cooperation Conference was held in Nanjing, China within the context of Nanjing Techweek 2021. The forum aims at deepening strategic partnerships between China and France through the cities of Nanjing and Paris, with a particular emphasis on scientific and technological innovation and development.

Attended by hundreds in person and broadcast live online, the Nanjing/Paris forum hosted notable guests from both China and France. On the Chinese side, speakers included: Li Shigui, Member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress and Secretary of the Jiangning District Party Committee and Shen Xiang, Minister of Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Chinese Embassy in France and Lu Qingjiang, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate General in Lyon.

On the French side, Dominique Villepin, minister of foreign affairs, outlined the importance of maintaining and developing this relation in order to further develop the energy, scientific and technology sectors within France, such as the recent development of French Chinese entrepreneurial clubs supported by the municipality of Nanjing. De Villepin was accompanied by the economist Pascal Petit, Director of the French National Center for Scientific Research who spoke on the necessity of a more opened policy with regards to innovation of new models between the two countries, and by Joël Ruet, president of The Bridge Tank.

Our president, Joël Ruet, also spoke at the event, elaborating on three main points:

– first, drawing the lessons from the history of technological cooperation between China and France, particularly within nuclear and energy sectors, today ending their cycles,

– second, the need to build on these past cooperation’s through the expansion of research frontiers and dialogue, for instance on fast breeding nuclear reactors or urban environmental services,

– third, focusing on new energies like hydrogen, which would be highly beneficial for France’s technology systems and industry.

Joël Ruet put his speech in the context of growing technological rivalries, arguing that both parties should clearly delineate those technologies where open cooperation is possible from those that ought to be regulated by strict state protocols.

　In the subsequent remote interaction session between the Paris session and Nanjing Sino-French Collaborative Innovation Center, more than ten Chinese and French business leaders made corporate presentations and exchanges.

　　An online signing ceremony of Sino-French technology projects and innovation platforms also took place alongside the forum, with keynote speeches by Chinese and French invited guests and a roundtable forum on science and technology innovation.

This forum, bringing together a wide range of experts in varying fields, from economics to technology, finance and academia, adopted a “cloud + offline” model to structure the conference, aims to become a platform of open innovation, cooperation and sharing between France and China, in order to promote mutually beneficial development. The topics touched on over the course of the forum included but were not limited to: automotive, artificial intelligence, medicine and health, energy saving and environmental protection.

EU-US Summit : towards a new transatlantic partnership ?

Posted on 16 June 202125 June 2021 by Joël Ruet

“America is back” and the Trump years are behind us, as evidenced by the holding of the EU-United States summit in Brussels on June 15, 2021: being the first meeting of this type since 2017, it marked the launch of a renewed partnership and a joint program for cooperation between the EU and the United States, following a sectoral approach. This meeting notably enabled three major commercial achievements to revive and deepen transatlantic trade in a context of Sino-American tensions.

Civil aircraft cooperation agreement closes 17-year dispute

Leaders Joe Biden, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, have committed to creating a cooperative framework for large civil aircraft, taking a major step toward ending the dispute over the sector. After 17 years of dispute between Brussels and Washington before the WTO, this agreement initiates a new transatlantic relationship in the aeronautics sector. At the root of the dispute: illegal subsidies granted to aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. Under the Trump administration, tensions were exacerbated and the WTO authorized the imposition of taxes on $7.5 billion worth of imported European goods and services, including 25% on wine and 15% on Airbus aircraft.

At the end of the summit, the leaders announced the suspension of punitive tariffs imposed on each other, as part of a five-year truce. The resolution of this dispute, which has plagued bilateral relations, is a strong signal that the Biden administration is moving toward a rapprochement that will create a level playing field and address new industrial challenges.

This search for appeasement reflects an attempt to bring the EU on board in the US tug-of-war with China by strengthening the U.S.-European position. Especially since this former duopoly of aircraft manufacturers is now becoming an oligopoly with the entry of the new Chinese player Comac. This common-sense measure therefore also has the potential to counter the Chinese breakthrough in this sector and to challenge China’s perceived unfair competition practices. The idea is also to set up an effective cooperation model to jointly address other challenges posed by China’s economic model. While it is not certain that a compromise will be reached at the end of this truce, there is a real American will to reach an agreement. Indeed, when the dispute began in 2004, Airbus was gaining ground on the international market to the detriment of Boeing, whereas today the threat comes from China and it is time for unity on both sides of the Atlantic.

Negotiations to resolve steel and aluminum dispute underway

Leaders agreed to begin discussions to resolve the steel and aluminum trade dispute and to lift all additional and punitive tariffs by the end of the year. Ursula von der Leyen announced a working group on this issue that has marred transatlantic relations since Donald Trump announced in 2018 the imposition of taxes of 25% on European steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, provoking European countermeasures in return.

Lifting these taxes in the spirit of appeasement that prevails today would be a much-awaited political gesture by the EU, which expects strong actions beyond intentions. However, this diplomatic gesture should not change the face of European trade, nor turn the European steel and aluminum market upside down, as prices have risen in an unprecedented manner over the past six months, drowning out the impact of the US taxes.

Moreover, the actual resolution of the conflict is likely to be thorny, as the EU does not have a tariff and trade logic but a border tax logic that is different from the United States. The partnership is not self-evident and leaves the door open to a possible rapprochement with China, whether on the American or European side.

The establishment of an EU-US Trade and Technology Council

It is no longer a question of Europe and the United States entering into a free trade logic, as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiated since 2013 is no longer relevant. However, a Trade and Technology Council will be created to provide a platform for cooperation on trade, investment, technology, digital issues and supply chains. It embodies a willingness to cooperate in developing compatible and international standards and to promote innovation while avoiding unwarranted new trade or technical barriers. It will enable the partners to align on global technology issues, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, clean technologies… Both sides have already committed to a partnership on rebalancing semiconductor supply chains as a priority.

This third announcement is both the most imprecise and the most structuring for the future of EU-US bilateral relations. At a time when a technological war seems to be underway with China, the issue of technological coordination is central. After a first American and commercial globalization, which was undermined by the Trump years, Biden now has the project of knitting a new one, which will take the form of technological liberalization.