EU lawmaker urges delay to US trade deal vote after tariff upheaval
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Jun 20, 2018. (File photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman)
BRUSSELS: A senior EU lawmaker proposed on Sunday (Feb 22) postponing a vote on the EU-US trade deal that had been planned for this week, arguing that the terms and legal basis on which the deal was struck had changed.
The US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's global tariffs on Friday, prompting Trump to put in place a temporary tariff of 10 per cent, which he hiked to 15 per cent on Saturday.
"Pure tariff chaos from the US administration. No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other US trading partners," Bernd Lange wrote in a post on X.
The European Union and the US agreed at Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland last July on a deal averting a trade war under which the EU is to remove its import duties on many US products in return for a 15 per cent US tariff on most EU goods exports.
The reduced EU duties need clearance from EU governments and the European Parliament.
Lange wrote that the terms of the Turnberry agreement and the legal basis on which it was reached had changed and that clarity was now needed.
The Greens have also said the vote should be paused.
The European Parliament last month suspended its work on the deal in protest at US President Donald Trump's demands to acquire Greenland and threats of tariffs on European allies who oppose his plan, but subsequently decided to put the deal to a vote at the end of February.
