WASHINGTON D.C. — The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) Foundation’s Global Innovation Forum (GIF) and Allied for Startups (A4S) today issued a series of recommendations to help inform the European Union and the United States as they seek to shape the transatlantic and global landscape to create tangible benefits for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and workers. The comments come in advance of the first meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) later this week in Pittsburgh.
“The TTC offers an opportunity for concrete deliverables that promote small business use of digital technologies, as well as a chance to bolster the shared commitment by the United States and EU to non-discriminatory rules and standards that promote a global ecommerce ecosystem,” said Jamaica Gayle, Deputy Director, Global Innovation Forum.
To support the work of the TTC working group on “how to promote small business access to, and use of, digital technologies,” GIF and A4S outlined key priorities, including:
- Enhancing transatlantic digital training and trade promotion for SMEs;
- Increasing government support to help SMEs adopt digital tools;
- Maximizing transatlantic small business access to the global e-commerce ecosystem; and
- Prioritizing the inclusion of women and minority-owned businesses in digitally-enabled trade.
“We applaud the launch of the TTC and encourage Presidents Biden and von der Leyen to leverage this critical opportunity. Let’s work together to enable the continued innovation of transatlantic businesses of all sizes by shaping non-discriminatory rules, and making it easier for small businesses to access the tools they need to grow and thrive in the digital economy,” said Melissa Blaustein, Founder, Allied for Startups.
Read the full recommendations here.
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About the Global Innovation Forum
The Global Innovation Forum is a nonprofit effort to connect startup, small business, development, and university communities with policymakers and select corporations to explore the opportunities and challenges of engaging in the global marketplace. GIF serves as a hub for business, university and development communities around the world to communicate with officials and corporations, discover public and private resources to help them succeed, and improve the public policy landscape to enable global innovation. GIF is a project of the 501(c)(3) National Foreign Trade Council Foundation. For more information about GIF, visit the website at www.globalinnovationforum.com.
About Allied for Startups
Allied for Startups is a worldwide network of over 40 advocacy organisations focused on improving the policy environment for startups. Our mission is to ensure that the voices of startups are heard in government. For more information on Allied for Startups including a full list of our network, visit the website at www.alliedforstartups.org.