The European Parliament has postponed the ratification of the US‑EU customs agreement again.
Chair of the Trade Committee, Bernd Lange (SPD), said on Monday that the vote scheduled for Tuesday was being postponed. “We intend to vote, but first we need clarity” he added.
The background is President Donald Trump’s newly announced 15‑percent global tariffs, a response to the White House after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Trump’s use of an emergency law to impose his so‑called “reciprocal tariffs” worldwide unlawful. Trump warned on Monday that any country that “played games with the humiliating decision of the Supreme Court” would face “noticeably higher tariffs and worse”.
Last year, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the U.S. president agreed that most EU imports into the United States should not exceed a maximum tariff. However, the legally binding agreement still requires approval by the European Parliament, which was to be voted on Tuesday. Lange has now announced a meeting of lawmakers to hold the vote in the coming week.
