MEPs plan to complete their ratification of the crucial trade pact with the US Trump administration next week, after the European Parliament’s trade committee gave their approval on Thursday (19 March), following obtaining new US promises on EU steel exports.
MEPs on the international trade committee backed files that would scrap import tariffs on US industrial goods by a 29 to nine majority.
The parliament is expected to give a final green light to the trade pact on 26 March at its plenary session in Strasbourg.
In a statement on X, committee chair Bernd Lange, a German social democrat, said that the “key shortcomings” of the agreement had been addressed. “We won’t be taking any final decision without clarity,” he added.
For its part, the centre-right European People’s Party group said that the vote was a “crucial step towards restoring stability in transatlantic trade amid ongoing tensions.”
“The EPP Group is now urging a final green light for the deal and a plenary vote without delay,” it added.
At the heart of the ‘Turnberry agreement’ is a 15-percent tariff on all EU goods exports.
“The EU should uphold its commitments, just as the US did when it capped tariffs at 15 percent,” said Jörgen Warborn MEP, the EPP spokesman on international trade.
The move has also been welcomed by Trump’s EU ambassador, Andrew Puzder, who urged lawmakers to “seize this positive momentum to deliver stability and opportunity for the largest and most comprehensive trade and investment relationship in history.”
Key 'sunrise' clause
"But we also need safeguards if new tariffs appear. The ‘sunrise clause’ gives businesses the certainty they urgently need," he added.
The committee has introduced a mechanism to immediately suspend the agreement if the Trump administration imposes new tariffs on any EU country because of their foreign policy decisions it deems unacceptable.
Similarly, if the US were not to drop tariffs on EU products that contain less than 50-percent steel or aluminium from 50 percent to 15 percent, the regime would also be suspended.
In a conference call on Wednesday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer told Lange, who is also the EU parliament’s lead negotiator on the trade files, that the Trump administration plans to shorten a list of items containing steel that are subject to high US tariffs.
That would cover hundreds of items that contain steel — from cranes to furniture — that are currently on a list of products subject to a 50-percent US tariff, a provision which EU lawmakers say is in breach of the Turnberry agreement between the EU and the US that was finalised last summer at Trump's eponymous golf course in Scotland.
The parliament’s amendments to the agreement will have to be approved by EU governments and the Trump administration. Lange is expected to meet Greer in Washington on Friday.
Last year, EU steel exports to the US dropped by 30 percent on the back of uncertainty and the higher import duties.
The ratification process of the EU-US pact, which seeks to end close to a year of uncertainty over transtlantic trade, has been delayed by tariff threats by the US president, particularly after Denmark and the rest of the EU rejected Trump’s entreaties to acquire Greenland.
MEPs had initially been ready to vote on the package in January but these plans were shelved following Trump’s attempts to grab Greenland, and then again when he imposed a blanket 15 percent global tariff in February after the US Supreme Court struck down his so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariff regime.
Benjamin Fox