AP
Brussels
The European Parliament voted Thursday to approve a trade deal between the European Union and the United States but with amendments added to protect European interests should the US fail to hold up its end of the bargain.
The deal was negotiated last July in Turnberry, Scotland, by US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It set a 15% tariff on most goods in an effort to stave off far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.
New language now says that the deal can be suspended if it is determined that Washington “undermined the objectives of the deal, discriminated against EU economic operators, threatened member states’ territorial integrity, foreign and defence policies, or engaged in
economic coercion.”
That clause was forged because of tensions over Greenland, said Bernd Lange, a German lawmaker and head of the EU’s parliamentary trade committee.
Trump drew widespread condemnation across the 27-nation bloc by threatening to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. He has backed away from the threat, at least for now.
“If this would happen again, then immediately the tariffs would be installed,” Lange said at a news conference after lawmakers voted. He said the the protective modifications were “weatherproofing” the Turnberry deal.
The deal will now be further negotiated by EU trade representatives Maros Sefcovic and his US counterpart Jamieson Greer, who are meeting Friday on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon.
“We need the EU-US deal in force on both sides – delivering real certainty for EU businesses and showing that genuine partnership gets results,” Sefcovic said after the vote in Brussels.
There were formally two votes to introduce clauses to the deal. One passed 417-154 and the other 437-144 with dozens of abstentions each.
The US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said the vote would provide “stability and predictability” for US and EU businesses and drive economic growth. “We encourage all parties to think to the future and the importance of unleashing opportunities for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
Malte Lohan, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, said the vote is “the right signal for businesses that have been stuck in limbo over the past year” and “a necessary step towards a more predictable transatlantic marketplace.” The EU had paused the deal in the wake of the February ruling of the US Supreme Court that struck down Trump’s use of an emergency powers law to set new import taxes. The European Commission, the EU executive charged with trade negotiations, had sought clarity on the ramifications of the court ruling.
