The European Union seeks to achieve a trade agreement with America that includes “clear protection mechanisms”
Brussels, 8 May / WAM / The European Parliament’s chief negotiator regarding the trade agreement with the United States, German MP Bernd Lange, announced that the final round of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union will be held on May 19 in the city of Strasbourg, stressing his rejection of the pressure exerted by the European People’s Party to speed up the approval of the agreement before the required legal and political guarantees are completed.
Lange, who chairs the International Trade Committee in the European Parliament, explained that the negotiations have made “significant progress” over the past days, but they still face fundamental points of disagreement, most notably the European Parliament’s demand to include a clause that allows the agreement to be frozen or suspended automatically if the United States breaches its trade obligations in the future.
The European official pointed out that recent judicial developments in the United States strengthened the position of the European Parliament, after the US International Trade Court issued a decision suspending some of the customs duties imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump on foreign imports. Lange considered that this ruling reveals the continued state of legal uncertainty regarding US trade policy, which forces the European Union to maintain “clear protection mechanisms” within the agreement.
The negotiations faltered this week after the two parties failed to reach a settlement on a European proposal to abolish customs duties on industrial and agricultural goods, in exchange for the European Union accepting to impose a fixed American tariff of 15% on most European exports to the American market.
On the other hand, Croatian MP Zeljana Zovko, representing the European People’s Party in the negotiations, criticized the continued postponement, considering that “prolonging the negotiation period is pushing Europe towards a direct trade confrontation with the United States.”
Trump had informed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, during a call on Thursday, that the deadline for implementing the trade agreement would be the fourth of next July, threatening to impose higher customs duties on the European Union if a final agreement was not reached before that date.
It is expected that, if a political understanding is reached by the end of May, the European Parliament will vote on the agreement during the plenary session scheduled between June 15 and 18, which is the last session before the expiration of the American deadline.
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