(June 16): The European Union’s US trade deal is close to being implemented after the bloc’s lawmakers gave their final approval, forging ahead despite ongoing transatlantic trade tensions.
The European Parliament ratified the agreement on Tuesday, voting 440-151, with 50 abstentions. The passage came just days after yet another Donald Trump tariff threat, with the US president going after France over its digital rules. EU countries are now expected to give their final nod on June 26, the last step in a fitful, yearlong ratification process.
“Under considerable pressure, we secured important guardrails to keep European interests on track,” Bernd Lange, who heads the Parliament’s trade committee, said on X.
The trade deal’s adoption will likely buy Europe at least a brief reprieve from Trump’s ire. The president had vowed to slap higher tariffs on EU vehicles if the bloc didn’t ratify the pact by July 4. But the relationship is by no means on stable footing — the two sides have unresolved disagreements over metals tariffs and tech regulations that could flare up at any moment.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic called the vote “an important milestone — the EU delivering on its word” in a post on X.
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Under the deal, the EU has agreed to erase levies on US industrial goods and some agricultural products in exchange for a 15% tariff ceiling on its products.
Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, initially settled on the pact’s terms last summer. The bloc accepted the lopsided deal in an attempt to avoid a trade war, keep Trump engaged in Ukraine and prevent him from withdrawing security guarantees for the continent.
While the US partially implemented the deal, the EU struggled to get a sign-off from the European Parliament. On two occasions, EU lawmakers paused ratification, once because of Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and again after a US court invalidated the president’s global tariff regime.
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Eventually, EU lawmakers amended the agreement to include an expiration date at the end of 2029 and provisions allowing the bloc to suspend the deal if Washington violated its terms. Those revisions required further negotiations with EU members.
While this process was ongoing, Trump lashed out over the delays, vowing to hit EU vehicles with 25% levies, breaching the 15% ceiling. Von der Leyen eventually got Trump to give the EU until July to finish ratification.
Even though the EU has met that deadline, the upcoming months will be littered with potential conflicts.
Trump officials have long claimed that the EU agreed as part of the deal to alter tech regulations they say unfairly hit US firms. But EU officials have consistently said the bloc’s digital rules are not up for negotiation and are applied equally to all companies.
Trump has regularly fumed about the matter. Over the weekend, he told the New York Post that he warned French President Emmanuel Macron not to target US tech companies or risk “a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France”.
Steel and aluminium tariffs similarly remain a point of friction. The EU is unhappy that the US placed levies above the deal’s 15% threshold hundreds of products containing the metals. The bloc has inserted a provision stating that it can suspend some tariff benefits if duties on these products exceed 15% after 2026.
The EU and US are also rushing to conclude an agreement on aircraft subsidies, as a five-year truce suspending US$11.5 billion ($14.75 billion) in retaliatory tariffs comes to a close. Part of the discussions are focused on coordinating against countries like China.
“Threats will not stop, because Trump is completely erratic and seems more and more desperate,” said Anna Cavazzini, an EU lawmaker who leads work on the trade deal for the Greens, whose group mostly backs the agreement. “What matters is that the commission doesn’t give a centimeter more that what the deal contains.”
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