MEPs are planning to rewrite parts of the EU-US trade pact, putting in place clauses to quickly suspend or terminate the deal if US president Donald Trump backtracks on any of its provisions.
At a press conference in Strasbourg on Thursday (23 October), Bernd Lange, the German social democrat who chairs the European parliament’s international trade committee, professed that he was “not really satisfied with the proposal”, adding that parliament’s amendments to the laws would be based on “five S’s: Steel, Stand-still, Suspension, Safeguards and Sunset.”
The August joint declaration is a “starting point”, said Lange, who is drafting parliament's position, adding that there was a “big appetite” among MEPs to strengthen the agreement and put in place safeguards to protect its industries.
He pointed to the fact that 407 products, including steel and aluminium, had lifted from the 15-percent tariff rate to 50 percent after the July agreement.
In a move that could put the EU on collision course with Washington, Lange noted that 70 percent of the EU’s agricultural machinery exports now face 50-percent tariffs, which he described as “unacceptable”.
“Only if the US reduces this 50 percent back to 15 percent will I allow a zero-tariff rate on US steel,” he said.
The deal agreed in July by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the US president at Trump’s Turnberry golf club in Scotland, on which the joint declaration was based, put in place 15-percent tariffs on most EU exports to the US, including cars.
It also promised that Brussels and Washington would work on joint quotas on steel imports. Trump has imposed a hefty 50-percent tariff on EU steel and aluminium exports.
Parliament’s intentions should not come as a surprise to the commission, but they are a potential headache.
MEPs were highly critical of the deal when Sabine Weyand, the commission’s chief trade negotiator, presented the terms of the agreement to them in September.
“I would not call it a negotiation,” was Lange’s withering assessment of the deal, which was widely believed to favour the US.
Lange also told reporters that threats and executive orders from the US president amounted to “coercive pressure,” adding that “we need to have the right to cancel this legislation in these events.”
Lange said that he would also propose an 18-month sunset clause after which the agreement could be suspended. That would give time for the EU commission to prepare an impact assessment of the economic implications of the agreement, he said.
Since July, Trump has issued statements to the press or on his Truth Social platform demanding that the EU exempt US firms from its digital and environmental laws, and to water down its rules on imports of beef and pork.
However, there is also a legal dimension at play.
Lange told reporters that since the EU-US deal is not in line with WTO rules on non-discrimination, the EU needed to have a sunset clause to cancel the arrangement if, after 18 months, there was no prospect of a comprehensive trade deal being negotiated with the Trump administration.
Despite Trump’s preference for trade policy to be decided by executive order, the EU commission president does not have comparable powers and the two laws giving effect to the July agreement need approval by MEPs and ministers.
Nor is the EU’s ratification process likely to move at breakneck pace.
The international trade committee will debate its draft report on 4 November before setting a deadline for other amendments.
A vote is likely to be held in committee in January, said Lange, with a final plenary vote pencilled in for next March or April.
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.