Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – The EU reached a deal Wednesday to implement its side of a nearly year-old trade pact with the United States, a major step towards ending a roller coaster of transatlantic tariff battles with President Donald Trump. Hailing the “good news,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it showed the bloc was “delivering on its commitments” and bringing “security and stability” for European businesses, which faced a new Trump tariff threat unless the deal kicks in by July 4.
The 27-nation bloc struck an accord with Washington last July, setting levies on most European goods at 15 percent, but to Trump’s frustration, it had yet to make good on its pledge to scrap levies on most US imports in return. Negotiators from the EU’s parliament and capitals wrangled late into the night in Strasbourg, finally emerging long after midnight with news of an agreement to move forward. “This means we will soon deliver on our part,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on social media, calling for the implementation process to be quickly finalized as Trump’s deadline looms. “Together, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade,” she said.
The EU agreement puts the bloc on track for ratification by July 4 — short of which Trump has threatened “much higher” tariffs. He has already vowed to raise duties on European cars and trucks from 15 to 25 percent. The US envoy to the EU, Andrew Puzder, said Washington was “encouraged by the progress this step represents,” while adding that officials would “review the details closely.” Trump’s tariff blitz targeting steel, aluminium, car parts, and other sectors hit the bloc hard before the deal struck with von der Leyen in Turnberry, Scotland, last year — and has jolted it to cultivate trade ties around the world. But the EU cannot afford to neglect the 1.6-trillion-euro ($1.9-trillion) relationship with the United States, its largest trade partner.
The EU parliament gave the deal a conditional green light in March, after months of delay caused by Trump’s designs on Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling striking down many of his tariffs. Parliament was under pressure to drop several amendments the Americans considered unacceptable, but trade committee head Bernd Lange — who managed to forge a common stance between haggling factions — played down the scale of concessions from lawmakers. “One of my favourite songs from the Rolling Stones is, ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ But if you try, you will get what you need — and indeed, we got what we need,” he told reporters Wednesday. “We need a safety net in the relation with the United States,” Lange said, calling US trade policy under Trump “totally unsecure and unpredictable.”
Among the safeguards built into the final text, the European Commission can move to suspend the accord if the United States fails to meet its commitments or disrupts trade and investment, including by “discriminating against or targeting EU economic operators.” It also gives the EU means to address spikes in US imports “that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers,” with suspension once again a possible outcome.
There were clear compromises too, with the text notably giving the United States until the end of the year to drop surtaxes above 15 percent on steel components, rather than making it a precondition as parliament wanted. Another concession was over so-called “sunrise” and “sunset” clauses under which the EU side of the accord would kick in once the US makes good on its pledges and would expire unless renewed in 2028. The sunrise clause was removed altogether, while the sunset was pushed back to the end of 2029.
The pan-European agri-business group Copa-Cogeca welcomed a “step towards greater certainty for farmers” but vowed to remain vigilant over the deal’s potential impacts. Similarly, Germany’s auto industry association VDA broadly welcomed the agreement but warned its safeguards risked upsetting the apple cart with the US side, saying matters must now be finalized “as quickly as possible.”
© 2024 AFP
