Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) had a brief exchange of views on the two draft regulations lowering tariffs on US products, on Tuesday 2 December. The MEPs who took the floor broadly supported the report drafted by the Chair of the INTA Committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, German) (see EUROPE 13737/7). There is broad agreement on the need for clear suspension and safeguard clauses in the text.
Some 175 amendments were tabled on the main regulation and fewer than 10 to the one dealing solely with lobsters. The rapporteur therefore hopes to have a vote at the end of January in the INTA Committee, or even sooner for the lobster regulation.
List of products. The MEPs said little about the content of the list of products. Bernd Lange’s proposal to withdraw only steel and aluminium products seems to have persuaded them. However, the Chair of the Delegation for relations with the United States, Brando Benifei (S&D, Italian), suggested that non-military weapons should also be removed from the list so that they would not be exempt from tariffs.
Period of validity. In her amendments, the shadow rapporteur for the EPP, Željana Zovko (Croatian), proposes extending the period of validity of the regulation from 18 to 36 months.
Her Greens/EFA colleague Anna Cavazzini (Germany) is keen, however, to stay within an 18-month period in anticipation of possible changes in the US administration. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)