Böll·Europe Podcast #9 | Transatlantic tensions and consumer protection

The U.S. and Europe have entered a new trade era under Biden's administration. A new cooperation agenda is being developed to tackle today's challenges, such as climate change and emerging technology, focusing on consumer protection, competition, digital issues, and energy. Despite the positive shift, trade rules are still used by some to influence domestic policies, often weakening regulations. For the citizens, this means that trade rules affect the E.U.'s efforts to protect consumers in the digital market and combat climate change. How to prevent trade rules from creating barriers to regulatory action? Is the new transatlantic cooperation agenda enough? To uncover this complex and fascinating topic, Gail Rego interviews:

• Calli Schroeder, Senior Counsel and Global Privacy Counsel at EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

• Calvin Manduna, Senior Trade Policy Analyst at IATP, the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, also in Washington D.C.

They have both visited Brussels in June 2023, invited by the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, a forum for transatlantic discussions on intellectual rights, internet society, and food between and among consumer organisations in the US and the EU.

Read also the commentaries:

• Regulating at a glacial pace: barriers to progress written into our trade regimes

• Civil society proposals to reconcile trade rules with the need for regulatory action