No more ‘sunrise’
The EU parliament gave the deal a conditional green light in March, after months of delays caused by Trump’s plans for Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling that struck down many of the president’s tariffs.
Lawmakers were under pressure to reject several amendments that the Americans found unacceptable — including a standstill clause that would remove favorable tariff conditions for American exporters if the US violates the agreement.
The final text empowers the European Commission to activate the suspension mechanism if the US fails to meet its commitments or disrupts trade and investment with the EU, including “discriminating against or targeting EU economic operators”.
It also gives the EU the tools to address rising US imports “that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers”, with suspension again a possible outcome.
But parliament also agreed to scale back some demands — and the final text notably gave the United States until the end of the year to drop excessive tariffs above 15 percent on steel components, rather than insisting on it as a precondition.
Another fight was over the so-called “sunrise” and “sunset” clauses, under which the EU’s side of the deal would kick in after the US fully met its pledges and expire if not renewed in 2028.
The sunrise clause was removed altogether, while the sunset was pushed back to the end of 2029, according to a parliamentary statement.
The head of the parliament’s trade committee, Bernd Lange, faced the challenge of forging a common position among the various factions, which haggled until the last moment.
Lange rejected the concessions made by lawmakers, declaring after the deal was announced that “parliament has prevailed with its demands for a comprehensive safety net.”
But Anna Cavazzini of the EU Greens was less equivocal, saying “the deal puts the EU at a disadvantage” while admitting it “could provide a certain degree of economic stability”.
“It can only be hoped that agreement on the tariff agreement will now calm the situation so that other key issues in the EU-US relationship can be addressed,” she said.
