The chairman of the European Parliament’s trade committee would like to suspend implementation of the European Union’s tariff deal with the United States because it is unclear if the US would still honour agreements it had reached.
The comments from Bernd Lange on Sunday follow a major setback for Trump, when on Friday the US Supreme Court ruled that the legal basis he was using for many of his tariffs is not justified.
Lange said nobody knows whether the US could still honour agreements that had been reached.
“Before further steps can be taken, we need clarity and legal certainty,” said Lange, a member of the European Parliament from Germany.
He said he would therefore propose a suspension to the responsible negotiating team in the European Parliament at a specially convened extraordinary meeting on Monday.
Last summer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump agreed that there should be a maximum tariff of 15% for most EU imports into the US. The legally binding agreement then worked out with the US still needs to be approved by the European Parliament.
Following his Supreme Court setback, Trump first announced on Friday worldwide import tariffs of 10% to the US, but then raised that on Saturday to 15%.
Trump is basing these tariffs on a 1974 trade law, but it only allows such measures for up to 150 days.
Lange told the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche that the 15% tariff rate announced by Trump constitutes a breach of the agreement the US had with Europe because these tariffs would be levied in addition to those already scheduled under the World Trade Organization .
“If the tariff rate set there is already 10%, a total of 25% will now be levied,” he said.