The European Parliament and EU governments agreed early Wednesday on the terms for implementing the so-called “Turnberry deal,” the trade pact reached between Brussels and Washington last summer.
According to the agreement, reached last July at US President Donald Trump’s Scottish golf resort, the EU would eliminate tariffs on hundreds of US industrial and agricultural goods in exchange for a 15% tariff on most EU exports to the US.
Trump recently accused Brussels delayed implementation and warned the bloc to implement the agreement by July 4 or face new fees.
After hours of negotiations in Strasbourg, lawmakers and EU states agreed to attach several conditions to the pact that go beyond the original political agreement.
“I am pleased to say that we have delivered a strong result with a significant impact,” EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovich told reporters.
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Parliament failed to secure a “much-talked-about clause” that would have made the suspension of tariffs conditional on the removal of US tariffs on steel and aluminium. EU governments opposed the move.
Instead, negotiators agreed to a suspension mechanism that would allow the bloc to reinstate tariffs if Washington is deemed to be out of compliance with the deal.
Socialist MEP Bernd Lange, Parliament’s chief negotiator, said the US would have until the end of the year to suspend tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives imposed after the Turnberry deal was reached, or trade gains could be put at risk.
However, the suspension would not be automatic. The text simply empowers the European Commission to introduce additional legislation prohibiting certain trade preferences after a political assessment by the EU executive.
Sefcovic said he would emphasize to his US counterparts the importance of removing tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives during the upcoming talks. “We want to see that the joint statement will be fairly implemented by both sides,” he said.
The Council also rejected Parliament’s push to include threats to the EU’s territorial integrity, such as repeated US remarks about taking Greenlandas a basis for the suspension of the agreement.
Negotiators also agreed to an expiration date of December 2029, effectively ensuring that the deal remains in place throughout Trump’s current presidential term and beyond European Parliament elections scheduled for May of that year.
The agreement also includes a safeguard mechanism that allows the EU to reinstate tariffs if a Commission investigation finds that rising US tariff-free imports are harming a European economic sector.
EU ambassadors will discuss the outcome of the talks later on Wednesday. Sefcovic said he will brief his US counterparts on the deal as soon as possible.
