On Wednesday 3 September, the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) welcomed Sabine Weyand, Director General of the European Commission’s DG Trade, to discuss the current state of relations with the United States. All the MEPs interviewed by Agence Europe on Tuesday 2 September said they had high expectations for this discussion. They want to understand the full implications of the agreement reached at the end of July by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (see EUROPE 13689/1), and the plan for what happens next.
Broadly speaking, the elected representatives are critical of the content of the agreement. “It’s a surrender. I refuse to say the word ‘agreement’”, lamented French MEP Céline Imart (EPP). She is particularly concerned about the fate of European farmers, who will be faced with the arrival of a number of duty-free American products, while their own exports to the United States will be subject to a 15% tax.
Agreement rather than escalation. Within the EPP, however, other MEPs paint a more nuanced picture. The agreement is unbalanced, but it is the lesser evil, according to several elected representatives. It is also crucial not to escalate the situation, insists Jörgen Warborn (Swedish), EPP coordinator on the INTA committee.
His colleague Iuliu Winkler (EPP, Romanian) shares this analysis and considers that the agreement meets the demands of European companies, which needed predictability on the tariff situation. What’s more, he argued, it’s impossible to analyse trade negotiations in isolation from the current geopolitical context.
Parliament must now focus on the next stage of negotiations between the EU and the United States, concludes Jörgen Warborn. “I would like to see us reach a genuine free trade agreement with the United States. We must therefore start from the joint declaration and continue negotiations”, he explained to Agence Europe.
At this stage, he does not foresee any difficulties within his group in approving the reduction in tariffs on American products.
Also within the EPP, Željana Zovko (EPP, Croatian) is calling on her colleagues to adopt a reasonable approach to the two proposals for regulations which will soon be going through Parliament and which remove certain European tariffs on American products (see EUROPE 13697/4).
S&D rejects the agreement. However, the Chair of Parliament’s second largest political group, Iratxe Garcia Perez (S&D, Spanish), said she rejected the agreement reached with Washington in July. This position is “widely shared within the S&D”, Kathleen van Brempt (S&D, Belgian) told Agence Europe.
In her view, the agreement clearly violates the terms of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in addition to offering no real guarantee that the 15% tariff will be maintained.
All of which leads many S&D MEPs, as well as Renew Europe and the Greens/EFA, to wonder why the Commission has not yet threatened to use the anti-coercion tool.
Belgian Greens/EFA MEP Saskia Bricmont also sees Europeans capitulating, and deplores the fact that the agreement “commits Europe to increased dependence on the United States for energy and arms purchases”.
The Renew Europe group is also critical of the agreement. Its chairman, Valérie Hayer, condemned the imbalance in the situation, especially in the light of US President Donald Trump’s recent threats on digital technology.
Her German colleague Svenja Hahn (Renew Europe) points out that it is not a long-term solution. It “puts European companies at a disadvantage compared to American companies, and I see this as a serious risk for employment”, she told Agence Europe. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)