The controversial EU-US trade deal could be approved soon by the European Parliament, after a long series of advances and setbacks.
The Parliament’s political groups’ negotiators met on Tuesday with Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to discuss the recent developments, and according to sources, are set to find an agreement in the next meeting on March 17. Therefore, the deal will be voted on two days later in the Committee on International Trade and will eventually get the final greenlight by the Parliament’s Plenary on March 26.
Commissioner Šefčovič had urged lawmakers on Tuesday to move ahead even as US President Donald Trump had announced new tariffs, which put the entire agreement’s terms in doubt.
The 10% duties on imports from US allies, including the EU, announced by Trump in February, froze the approval process, which had already been halted once due to Trump’s claims over Greenland.
MEPs feared that the new duties would come on top of the existing ones, bringing the total over the 15% agreed in the deal struck last year in Scotland by Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Then Parliament decided to resume work, encouraged by the Trade Commissioner, but it has kept asking for clarity from the US administration on the topic.
After several meetings, the political groups’ negotiators seem ready to agree on a text to be voted on. It includes a “sunset clause”, which would see EU tariff relief expire at the end of March 2028, unless explicitly renewed, and a “suspension clause”, which would be activated in the event the US violates the deal’s rules.
The last details remain to be fine-tuned, including a “sunrise clause” proposed by the European People’s Party negotiator Jörgen Warborn. “This clause makes sure that the deal doesn’t kick in before it is confirmed that all the elements of the deal are upheld”, he told Euronews, adding that the instability brought by the war in the Middle East makes this and other trade deals even more urgent.