The European Parliament has been slow-walking ratification of the EU-US tariff deal.

The European Union will have greater leeway to suspend a tariff deal struck with the United States in the event of any backtracking by the Trump administration, according to a new clause inserted to win the backing of MEPs. The European Parliament has been slow-walking ratification of the EU-US tariff deal, brokered last summer to avoid a transatlantic trade war, with MEPs insisting extra safeguards be added. Talks that ran into the early hours of Wednesday saw negotiators from the European Commission, the parliament and member states give their blessing to the EU-US tariff pact, heading off the possible resumption of a trade dispute between Brussels and Washington. The deal agreed last August saw European countries lock in a tariff rate of 15 per cent on goods sold across the Atlantic into the US, which ended months of uncertainty about whether Trump would drag Europe into a trade war. It included a commitment to get rid of pre-existing, mostly low, EU tariffs charged on US industrial goods. The deal had been negotiated by US president Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the union’s powerful executive that leads on trade. While the higher US tariff rates had already kicked in, the EU held off scrapping import duties on American industrial goods until the agreement was approved by the European Parliament, a delay that had frustrated Washington. Earlier this month, Trump had threatened to slap higher 25 per cent tariffs on imports of European-made cars, should the EU fail to follow through on promises it made. MEPs had insisted on stronger safeguards as the price of their support, to give Brussels greater scope to retaliate in the event Trump goes back on his side of the deal, or upends transatlantic relations. The European Parliament temporarily stopped the clock on its process of ratifying the tariff deal after Trump threatened to annex Greenland at the start of the year. A clause in the EU-US deal allowing the commission to suspend the agreement “in whole or in part” was strengthened in recent talks. A revised text, agreed after hours of back and forth between the different EU institutions, said suspension could be justified if the US undermines the tariff agreement, disrupts the trading relationship or targets European companies. The late night negotiations settled on the inclusion of a “sunset clause” that would see the deal expire at the end of 2029, the year after Trump is due to leave office. A failure by the Trump administration to slash 50 per cent tariffs on European steel and aluminium down to 15 per cent by the end of the year, would also allow the commission to reverse reductions in import duties charged on similar US products. The legal texts effectively ratifying the EU-US agreement will have to be approved by the European Parliament in a vote in the coming weeks, and a separate vote of the 27 national governments at EU-level. Bernd Lange, the German MEP who chairs the parliament’s trade committee, said the changes meant there would be no more blank cheques. Brussels would have clear ways to respond in the event Trump tried to levy additional tariffs on Europe, he said. The EU office of the American Chamber of Commerce said it was “relieved” to see a deal had been reached. “The EU has shown that we are a reliable trading partner, while standing firm in defending the interests of European stakeholders,” said trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič. Left-wing MEP Martin Schirdewan was critical that a decision to suspend the deal would be left to the commission “if or when Trump reneges on the agreement”.

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