STRASBOURG: The European Parliament has suspended its work to approve a pending European Union trade agreement with the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs against European allies amid a dispute linked to Greenland. The decision halts planned committee steps needed for Parliament to set its position on the deal, pushing the transatlantic trade package into uncertainty at a moment of rising political friction between Washington and Brussels.
The move centers on the Parliament’s international trade committee, which had been preparing to take votes later this month on elements tied to the agreement reached at a U.S.-EU meeting in Turnberry, Scotland, last July. Committee chair Bernd Lange said the new U.S. tariff threats breached the basis of that Turnberry understanding, and that work on Parliament’s position would be paused until further notice.
Under the Turnberry framework, the EU had been expected to remove a range of import duties on U.S. goods, alongside provisions that maintained zero tariffs on U.S. lobster exports in line with an earlier arrangement. Many lawmakers had previously criticized the package as skewed, citing the U.S. retention of a 15% tariff level on many EU goods even as Brussels was asked to reduce its own barriers, but several groups had nonetheless weighed supporting the deal with conditions.
Trump’s latest threats sharpened those objections. European lawmakers said a trade agreement cannot be advanced while tariff pressure is being used against allied countries, and they argued that such threats undermine the credibility of any negotiated commitments. The suspension does not cancel the agreement, but it removes the near-term path for the Parliament to endorse key steps and signals that legislative approval is no longer proceeding under the original timetable.
Approval process put on hold after tariff threats
The trade committee had been expected to vote during January 26-27 on its stance, a procedural milestone that influences how the Parliament approaches implementation measures. With that step postponed indefinitely, the file is effectively frozen at the parliamentary level, limiting the EU’s ability to translate the July framework into binding legislative backing. The committee’s action also raises the political cost of moving forward without a change in U.S. posture.
EU officials have emphasized that the Parliament’s role is central to trade approval and that lawmakers’ concerns extend beyond tariffs to the broader conduct surrounding the negotiations. The episode adds strain to wider economic ties between the EU and the United States, two of the world’s largest trading partners, and comes as European leaders face internal pressure to demonstrate unity when confronted with tariff threats from Washington.
The dispute has also highlighted unresolved tariff issues on sensitive sectors. U.S. officials have maintained that tariff reductions on certain products, including some longstanding flashpoints in transatlantic trade, are not on offer until the EU deal is finalized. European lawmakers have pointed to that stance as another factor complicating a swift approval path, arguing it leaves the EU committing to concessions while major U.S. tariffs remain in place.
Turnberry deal terms questioned as tensions rise
Politically, the Parliament’s decision underscores the vulnerability of trade arrangements to sudden policy shifts by the U.S. administration. The July framework was negotiated as a practical package to reduce selected trade frictions, but lawmakers said the context has changed sharply due to Washington’s tariff threats against European countries that reject the U.S. position on Greenland. The committee’s freeze formalizes that change in context inside the EU’s legislative process.
For now, the EU-U.S. agreement remains in limbo, with the Parliament’s trade committee signaling it will not proceed while tariff threats stand. The pause leaves European institutions and national governments weighing how to manage a critical commercial relationship under escalating pressure, while keeping the approval process on hold until the conditions surrounding the deal align with the commitments set out when it was reached last summer. – By Content Syndication Services.