On Wednesday 4 March, the European Parliament’s rapporteurs on relations with the United States decided not to rush into resuming negotiations on the European Union’s commitments under the bilateral trade agreement reached in the summer of 2025.
These talks have been put on hold for the second time in a row, following the US Supreme Court’s decision on 20 February to invalidate the tariffs previously applied by the Trump administration, and its subsequent decision to introduce a 10% horizontal surtax on all US imports (see EUROPE 13814/4, 13816/6).
Letter to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. According to two sources, lead rapporteur and Chair of the Committee on International Trade (INTA), Bernd Lange (S&D, German), will propose that EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič send a letter to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer asking for “greater clarity”.
“Businesses and consumers need a stable tariff regime, and we still don’t have that (...) It would be irresponsible to adopt legislation without legal certainty”, explained Mr Lange on X.
If the situation stabilises, meaning if the United States reaffirms its commitment to the summer agreement with the EU, the European Parliament could resume negotiations on the two regulations enabling tariffs on a series of US products to be reduced or eliminated.
The Council of the EU has already adopted its position, but Parliament still has to give its opinion.
Timetable to appease the EPP group. It could do so in a vote in the INTA Committee on Thursday 19 March, followed by a plenary vote in a mini-plenary session on 25 and 26 March, provided that the United States offers sufficient guarantees. Before that, the shadow rapporteurs will meet again on Tuesday 17 March.
According to a parliamentary source, this timetable seems “unlikely” and is simply intended to appease the EPP group, which wants negotiations to resume quickly.
According to our information, the Christian Democrat group, supported only by the conservative ECR and far-right PfE groups, wanted to organise an extraordinary meeting of the INTA Committee next week to vote on these two regulations as quickly as possible. This will not be the case.
“Businesses on both sides of the Atlantic are calling for stability and predictability, and it is our responsibility to respond by moving this agreement forward”, reiterated the EPP rapporteur, Croatia’s Željana Zovko, via X.
The spokesman for the Christian Democrat group on international trade, Sweden’s Jörgen Warborn, was harsher: “It is a shame that an anti-Trump narrative is being pushed more strongly than a pro-European one, risking a transatlantic trade war. Citizens need clarity and predictability. Today, S&D, Renew Europe, the Greens/EFA and The Left deprived them of that“.
Next meeting: Tuesday 10 March, with a briefing by the European Commission for the European Parliament rapporteurs. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)