BRUSSLES \u2014 Nine months after the EU and US struck a controversial trade deal, negotiations remain deadlocked as members of the European Parliament (MEPs) resist pressure to fast-track approval without safeguards against future American threats, Euronews reported.<\/p>\n
The European Commission insisted on Thursday that \u201cprogress\u201d had been made in late-night talks with MEPs and member state officials on implementing last August\u2019s EU-US trade deal, and that the process remained \u201cfully in line with standard legislative practice\u201d.<\/p>\n
But inside the room, negotiators were far apart on what is still needed.<\/p>\n
Nine months after the controversial agreement was struck at the Turnberry golf course between Brussels and Washington, the deal remains bogged down in fraught negotiations between MEPs, the Commission and EU member states, with divisions hardening just as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Europe with fresh tariff threats.<\/p>\n
The agreement would scrap EU tariffs on US industrial goods and limit US tariffs to 15%, but at the weekend, Trump, frustrated at the delays, threatened to charge by 25% European cars and trucks, if the EU fails to put the deal into force.<\/p>\n
Yet Wednesday night\u2019s trilogue negotiations between EU Trade Commissioner Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, MEPs and EU national governments broke down after six hours of talks, amid fierce resistance from several political groups in the European Parliament. Although \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d hailed \u201cconstructive mood\u201d in the room, the deadlock means a new meeting is now set for May 19.<\/p>\n
While the Commission and most EU countries want the deal to be approved swiftly, MEPs refused to compromise during the talks, demanding safeguard mechanisms in case Washington violates the deal with new tariffs. The negotiators also failed to agree on the MEP demand for a suspension clause, which would allow the EU to freeze the agreement immediately if Trump threatens the EU\u2019s territorial integrity, as he did earlier this year when he suggested the US could annex Greenland.<\/p>\n
Another measure sought by MEPs is a safeguard if a flood of US imports distorts competition inside the EU’s Single Market. And the Parliament\u2019s chief negotiator, German MEP Bernd Lange, told the negotiators that the EU needed a sunset clause, which would automatically expire tariff relief at the end of March 2028, unless explicitly renewed.<\/p>\n
MEPs pushed back against calls to rubber stamp the deal, saying they would not be rushed, despite the combined pressure from governments, the Commission, industry and the US. Indeed, they say Trump’s own threats \u2013 and his erratic behaviour \u2013 make safeguards even more necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not here to be bullied. It takes some time, but this is the regular legislative EU process, and we are working constructively,\u201d a S&D source told Euronews.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Parliament is not blocking the agreement, we are working on implementing it,\u201d Greens\/EFA MEP Anna Cavazzini told Euronews.<\/p>\n
However, Parliament officials told Euronews they were confident the deal could be approved within the next two weeks, with MEPs considering an extraordinary meeting next week to speed up the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe earlier we can close the trial of negotiations, the earlier we give clarity for businesses and indeed more predictability in a turbulent situation,\u201d European People\u2019s Party\u2019s MEP J\u00f6rgen Warborn, one of the deal\u2019s negotiators, told Euronews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSLES \u2014 Nine months after the EU and US struck a controversial trade deal, negotiations remain deadlocked as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[9487,23461,23463,23464,23462,39,258,2036,157,16384,5008,110,382,16568,13928],"class_list":{"0":"post-35581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-european-parliament","8":"tag-be","9":"tag-bullied","10":"tag-controversial","11":"tag-deal","12":"tag-dig","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-european-parliament","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-lawmakers","17":"tag-not","18":"tag-over","19":"tag-trade","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-we","22":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}