The European Parliament decided this Monday (23) to suspend the ratification of the trade agreement signed in August between the European Union (EU) and the USA, due to the uncertainty generated by the decision of the American Supreme Court that declared illegal part of the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
The European Parliament’s Trade Committee planned to vote on the agreement next Wednesday (25) to move forward with the ratification process, but the European People’s Party, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens agreed this Monday to suspend the process until Washington clarifies the implications of last Friday’s decision for the bloc.
“There is a lot of uncertainty about what is happening,” the chairman of the Trade Commission, Social Democrat Bernd Lange, said in a press release, adding that “clarity and legal certainty” are needed before the deal can be ratified.
Since last year, when Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the agreement, the vast majority of European products have been subject to a 15% tariff. However, the EU did not import industrial goods from the US at 0% — as promised — because the European Parliament did not ratify the pact.
Now the EU wants to know whether the US government will continue to fulfill its side of the agreement or whether the 15% tariffs announced by Trump this weekend change what was agreed.
Lange said the political groups will meet again next week in the hope that Washington has clarified whether it will continue to comply with the agreement. If that happens, she suggested that the European Parliament could ratify the pact at its March plenary session.
The European Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, also went to the European Parliament to discuss the situation with MEPs, following the video conference he held with the G7 Trade Ministers and the contacts he had on Saturday with the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, and the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick.
“Stability and predictability are priorities for our companies. I reiterate that full respect for the EU-US agreement is fundamental,” Šefčovič wrote on social media, emphasizing the message that Brussels has been repeating since the decision was announced.
The Commissioner will hold another meeting with EU countries this afternoon to consider the issue.
