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EU to Restart Process to Ratify US Trade Deal
Trade Committee to Vote March 19 on Accord
The European Union will restart ratification of its trade deal with the U.S., setting up the long-delayed agreement for final approval.
The European Parliament’s trade committee will vote March 19 on the accord, which will then go to a full plenary vote later this month or in April, Bernd Lange, who chairs the trade committee and is leading negotiations on the issue, told Bloomberg News.
“There was a brought majority for my compromise package,” Lange said in a statement to Bloomberg. “This is really a European statement.”
The decision, made March 17 by lawmakers overseeing the process, comes despite the U.S. recently opening fresh investigations into EU trade practices that could produce more tariffs. But lawmakers decided to move ahead after adding an amendment that stipulates the deal won’t go into effect until the U.S. honors the terms of the agreement.
If parliament approves the accord, then the final text would go to a vote by member states.
The move signals potential relief for a growing irritant in the transatlantic relationship.
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The EU has repeatedly stalled the deal’s approval in recent months, citing President Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and uncertainty after the Supreme Court invalidated Washington’s global tariffs. The U.S. has vented about the delays, raising the prospect of another trade rupture.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently launched probes into Washington’s major trading partners, including the EU and China, aiming to replace the so-called reciprocal tariffs the Supreme Court struck down. The investigations, which typically take months to complete, could result in new levies against the EU, which has not received a guarantee that the outcome will comport with the prior trade deal.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has warned it will respond “firmly and proportionately” if the U.S. breaches the deal.
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The EU and U.S. initially struck their trade deal last July. The EU agreed to erase duties on U.S. industrial goods in exchange for the 15% ceiling on its goods. Brussels defended the asymmetrical accord as an attempt to avoid a full-blown trade war with its largest trading partner and secure U.S. security commitments for Europe, especially in Ukraine.
But some EU lawmakers, especially from left-wing parties, have been critical of the agreement. Opposition grew when the U.S. expanded a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum goods to hundreds of additional products.
Still, many EU countries and center-right lawmakers have been pushing the European Parliament to approve the deal, arguing it will help keep the transatlantic relationship stable and businesses are looking for certainty.
