European Parliament Approves EU-US Trade Deal Implementation

The European Parliament approved legislation on Tuesday to implement the EU’s trade deal with the United States, marking one of the final hurdles in a process that has repeatedly frustrated the Trump administration.

Lawmakers voted by 440 in favor, with 151 against and 50 abstaining, to approve changes to legislation to remove tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and some agricultural products — fulfilling the EU’s side of the agreement struck last July at President Donald Trump’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland.

Washington had agreed to cap tariffs on most EU exports at 15 percent and to lower levies on European cars. Those changes took effect last fall.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the vote result. “A deal is a deal — and the EU is delivering its part,” she wrote in a social media post.

Getting the deal onto the EU’s books has taken longer, with top trade lawmaker Bernd Lange demanding additional safeguards after Trump threatened in January to annex Greenland and later menaced Spain with a trade embargo for opposing U.S. air strikes on Iran.

In a hard-fought compromise reached last month, it was agreed that Parliament can ask the Commission to suspend the deal if Washington fails to lower duties on steel and aluminum products by the end of 2026. The EU’s tariff concessions will also expire at the end of 2029 — after Trump is due to leave office.

The delay has tested Washington’s patience, to the point that the U.S. president in early May threatened to hike tariffs again should the EU institutions not reach a deal by July 4.

The Council of the EU — representing EU governments — is now expected to rubber-stamp the texts on June 26, before they are officially published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force.

This report has been updated.