Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), President of the European Commission, sits on the podium at the Charlemagne Prize ceremony in City Hall.<\/p>\n
Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images<\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday welcomed a provisional agreement on legislation to remove import duties on U.S. goods and called on co-legislators to move swiftly to finalize the process.<\/p>\n
EU lawmakers welcomed the breakthrough after more than five hours of talks overnight, saying it likely paves the way for the 27-nation bloc to avoid a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> to punish a further delay with higher tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n The agreement includes a safeguard mechanism that would let Brussels suspend tariff reductions in the event that U.S. imports harm European industry. <\/p>\n It also allows the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to suspend tariff preferences if the U.S. continues to apply a tariff rate higher than 15% on EU steel and aluminum derivatives by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The provisional agreement comes almost a year after the EU and U.S. first struck a trade deal<\/a> at Trump’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland. Under the terms of the accord, the EU agreed to scrap tariffs on U.S. industrial goods, while the Trump administration agreed to cap tariffs on most European goods at 15%.<\/p>\n “A deal is a deal, and the EU honours its commitments,” the EU’s von der Leyen said<\/a> on Wednesday via X. “Together, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade.” <\/p>\n EU lawmakers had twice paused its deliberations after Trump in January threatened<\/a> to seize Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, and again in February after the Supreme Court struck down<\/a> a huge chunk of Trump’s far-reaching tariff agenda. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, the U.S. president said he would give the EU until July 4 to ratify its trade agreement with Washington, threatening to raise tariffs to “much higher” levels if it failed to do so. <\/p>\n He had also pledged<\/a> to raise duties on cars and trucks imported from the EU to 25%, accusing the bloc of not complying with the terms of the so-called “Turnberry Agreement.”<\/p>\n The EU is now expected to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline, with a vote for final approval expected to take place in mid-June.<\/p>\n ‘Rocky journey’<\/p>\n Europe has “avoided a damaging escalation of transatlantic trade tensions and protected European companies, investments and millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” \u017deljana Zovko, the lead negotiator in the European People Party’s group on the U.S. trade deal, said<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 23, 2025. <\/p>\n Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n Bernd Lange, the European Parliament’s chief trade negotiator, described<\/a> the process as a “rocky journey” but one that was worthwhile.<\/p>\n “By setting the commitments under the joint statement into law, this regulation becomes part of the EU’s toolkit to improve EU-US relations but also responds to pressure,” Lange said in a statement. <\/p>\n