EU Parliament backs US trade deal — with strings attached

EU Parliament backs US trade deal — with strings attached

POLITICO — 2026-03-26

News from Brussels

The European Parliament supported two legal proposals Thursday to implement the trade agreement reached last year between the EU and the U.S. by a wide margin, with amendments aimed at ensuring the Trump administration stands by the deal.

In a plenary vote, lawmakers backed the measures — to scrap EU duties on U.S. industrial products — with a wide majority. Parliament negotiators will likely meet as soon as April 13 with EU country representatives to start negotiating a final compromise that could then enter into force.

The measures are formally split into two different texts. One reduces tariffs on U.S. products while another suspends application of duty collections. The first was backed by 417 votes in favor, 154 against and 71 abstentions. The second had 437 votes in favor, 144 against and 60 abstentions.

Lawmakers introduced a clause to suspend the deal if U.S. President Donald Trump threatens the EU’s territorial sovereignty, as he did earlier this year when he pushed to annex Greenland. 

The texts backed by MEPs also include amendments that seek to anchor application of the deal to the removal of tariffs on steel derivatives, in a so-called sunrise clause. There’s also a “sunset clause” which foresees that the deal would expire in March 2028.

U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder on Monday called on the European Parliament to finally back the trade deal struck at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July.

MEPs had slow-walked the process after the U.S. Supreme Court last month struck down Trump’s original tariff agenda. The deal struck at Turnberry originally set a 15 percent tariff ceiling for most EU exports. A 10 percent U.S. interim tariff is now in force.