GED @ … Seminar on Digital Trade

Over the past twenty years, cross-border data flows have become a strategic and necessary element of the transatlantic economic relationship. In fact, data flows between the EU and the US are higher than any other cross-border data connection in the world – around 50% higher than the data exchange between the U.S and Asia. But while this huge flow of data nowadays represents an essential part of trade and communication between the EU and the US, contributing to enormous economic growth on both sides, the exchange between the world’s two largest economies also comes with its own set of challenges and risks that threaten such potential growth.

To discuss both the benefits and challenges of transatlantic data flow and how to shape such flows in a free and save way for the future, The GED Team, together with the “Global Economy and Development” program at the Brookings Institution, will be holding a conference next week on May 26th in Berlin.

We have invited numerous knowledgeable voices for our conference starting with introductory remarks by MEP and former Vice President of the EU Commission Viviane Reding on “Rebuilding Trust in Transatlantic Data Flows”, followed by a presentation of Joshua Meltzer’s paper on “The importance of the Internet and Transatlantic Data Flows for U.S. and EU Trade and Investment”. The presentation will give to our selected audience of regulators, business leaders and civil society representatives a better sense of the economic consequences of transatlantic data flows. After Dr. Meltzer’s presentation we will have a short Q&A with Viviane Reding and Joshua Meltzer before we continue with a panel discussion, presenting further prominent voices and designed to tackle the challenges laid out in this article.