The EU member states, all 27 states, officially approved on Wednesday a settlement reached with the European Parliament to implement the trade agreement with the US, leaving only the final ratification by European lawmakers before the agreement can enter into force.
The agreement, reached last July, set a ceiling of 15 percent on US tariffs for most European goods. However, the European Union has not yet fulfilled its commitment to eliminate tariffs imposed on most US imports, a delay that has drawn criticism from US President Donald Trump.
The settlement included safeguard provisions linked to the removal of European tariffs in anticipation of the possibility that the United States could retreat from its commitments.
However, these guarantees were softened compared with the European Parliament’s initial demands in an effort to avoid renewed tensions with the White House. In this context, the so-called “sunset clause,” concerning the expiration of the agreement, was postponed until the end of 2029 after President Trump’s term ends instead of being implemented earlier as previously proposed.
The text also granted the US until the end of the current year to remove additional tariffs exceeding 15 percent on steel components, rather than requiring implementation beforehand as a condition for the agreement’s entry into force, as demanded by the European Parliament.
In return, the so-called “starting clause” which stipulated that the European side of the agreement would not be activated until the United States fulfilled its commitments, was dropped.
The European Parliament, which considers the trade agreement less beneficial to the European Union, had suspended ratification procedures several times, particularly following threats made by President Trump this year regarding control over Greenland.
