Strasbourg, France: EU lawmakers and member states reached a deal in the early hours of Wednesday to implement the bloc\u2019s nearly year-old trade pact with the United States, with President Donald Trump threatening new tariffs unless it is done by July 4.<\/p>\n
The 27-nation bloc struck an accord with Washington last July setting levies on most European goods at 15 percent, but to Trump\u2019s frustration it had yet to make good on its pledge to scrap levies on most US imports in return.<\/p>\n
Negotiators from the EU\u2019s parliament and capitals wrangled late into the night, finally emerging several hours after midnight with news of an agreement to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means we will soon deliver on our part,\u201d EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said as she welcomed the agreement and called for the implementation process to be finalized quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade,\u201d von der Leyen said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
The EU agreement puts the bloc on track to meet Trump\u2019s deadline for ratification of the deal sealed in Turnberry, Scotland, between Trump and von der Leyen, and hopefully turn the page on more than a year of transatlantic trade battles.<\/p>\n
Short of that, Trump had warned the European Union should expect \u201cmuch higher\u201d tariffs \u2014 and had already vowed to raise duties on European cars and trucks from 15 to 25 percent.<\/p>\n
The tariff blitz unleashed by Trump before the Turnberry accord, including hefty levies on steel, aluminum and car parts, jolted the bloc into cultivating trade ties around the world.<\/p>\n
But the EU cannot afford to neglect the 1.6-trillion-euro ($1.9-trillion) relationship with the US, its largest trade partner.<\/p>\n
No more \u2018sunrise\u2019<\/p>\n
The EU parliament gave the deal a conditional green light in March, after months of delay caused by Trump\u2019s designs on Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling striking down many of the president\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers were under pressure to renege on several amendments that the Americans considered unacceptable \u2014 including a suspension clause that would scrap favorable tariff conditions for US exporters should the US breach the deal.<\/p>\n
The final text empowers the European Commission to trigger the suspension mechanism if the US fails to meet its commitments or disrupts trade and investment with the EU, including by \u201cdiscriminating against or targeting EU economic operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also gives the EU means to address spikes in US imports \u201cthat cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers,\u201d with suspension again a possible outcome.<\/p>\n
But parliament also agreed to scale back some demands \u2014 and the final text notably gave the US until the end of the year to drop surtaxes above 15 percent on steel components, rather than insisting on it as a precondition.<\/p>\n
Another fight was over so-called \u201csunrise\u201d and \u201csunset\u201d clauses under which the EU side of the accord would kick in once the US makes fully good on its pledges, and would expire unless renewed in 2028.<\/p>\n
The sunrise clause was removed altogether, while the sunset was pushed back to the end of 2029, according to a parliament statement.<\/p>\n
The head of parliament\u2019s trade committee, Bernd Lange, faced the challenge of hammering out a common stance between different factions which haggled until the last moment.<\/p>\n
Lange played down the concessions extracted from lawmakers, declaring after the deal was announced that \u201cparliament has prevailed with its demands for a comprehensive safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Anna Cavazzini of the EU\u2019s Greens was less effusive, saying the \u201cdeal puts the EU at a disadvantage\u201d while conceding \u201cit can secure a certain degree of economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne can only hope that the agreement on the tariff deal will now calm the situation, so that other major issues in the EU-US relationship can be addressed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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