The European Parliament has approved legislation implementing the European Union’s tariff agreement with the United States, clearing the final hurdle before a deal that caps US duties on most EU exports at 15 per cent.
Lawmakers in Strasbourg backed the main regulation on June 16 by 440 votes to 151, with 50 abstentions. A second measure extending tariff-free access for US lobster and processed lobster products passed by 444 to 152, with 54 abstentions.
The vote keeps the bloc on course to meet a July 4 deadline set by US President Donald Trump, who had threatened 25 per cent tariffs on European cars if the EU failed to deliver its side of the bargain.
The agreement scraps EU tariffs on all US industrial goods and grants preferential treatment to a range of American seafood and farm products. In return, Washington has agreed to a 15 per cent ceiling on duties for almost all EU exports.
At the heart of the dispute has been Trump’s drive to cut the US trade deficit with the EU and China under his “America First” agenda.
Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs Parliament’s international trade committee and led its negotiating team, described the deal as “unbalanced and unfair”, though he said MEPs had secured a safety net against any future US tariff moves.
The legislation translates commitments made by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the US president’s Turnberry golf resort in west Scotland in July 2025.
Von der Leyen welcomed the outcome. “A deal is a deal – and the EU is delivering its part,” she wrote on social media, adding that the bloc was days away from removing its own tariffs on US industrial imports.
To win parliamentary backing, MEPs attached safeguards allowing the Commission to suspend the arrangement if Washington keeps higher duties on EU steel and aluminium products beyond the end of 2026. A sunset clause would end the deal on December 31, 2029 unless it is renewed.
EU industry groups, led by exporters in Germany, broadly welcomed the vote, pointing to the predictability it would bring after months of transatlantic tension.
The legislation now requires formal approval by the Council of the European Union before it can enter into force following publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
