On Wednesday 21 January, it came as no surprise when Bernd Lange (S&D, German), the permanent rapporteur on EU-US relations, announced the suspension of negotiations in the European Parliament on part of the agreement with the United States from summer 2025 on the elimination and reduction of tariffs on certain American products.
US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland are growing ever louder - culminating last weekend in the announcement of a customs surcharge on eight European countries involved in a military exercise to protect the autonomous Danish territory (see EUROPE 13789/2).
Mr Trump’s speech at the Davos Economic Forum on the same day “clearly shows that he is not prepared to change his position: that Greenland must become part of the United States as soon as possible”, Mr Lange lamented to the press. On Wednesday evening, the US president appeared to backtrack, reporting an agreement on a framework with NATO that would allow him to lift the threat of customs barriers.
Rarely enough to be highlighted: the presidents of the main political groups - EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, The Left and Patriots for Europe, with the exception of the ECR - were unanimous on the need to suspend the current negotiations (see EUROPE 13790/23).
Last week, the rapporteurs on the two regulations governing the reduction in tariffs on certain American products decided to meet in Strasbourg on 21 January to decide whether to freeze these negotiations and postpone the vote in the Committee on International Trade (INTA), which should have taken place on 26 or 27 January.
This has now been achieved, but according to Mr Lange, it is necessary to go further by reactivating countermeasures enabling tariffs to be imposed on a list of American products worth €93 billion and using the EU’s anti-coercion tool (see EUROPE 13789/2).
The coordinators of the INTA Committee could ask the Commission next Monday to mobilise this tool if Mr Trump’s provocations continue. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)