EU lawmakers have approved a trade deal with the US struck last year but delayed during Donald Trump’s campaign to take over Greenland, paving the way for ratification that Brussels hopes will stabilise trade relations.
The European parliament on Thursday backed the 2025 Turnberry agreement to eliminate tariffs on American industrial goods and some agricultural products in return for the US dropping its levies on most EU goods to 15 per cent.
However, MEPs set conditions that Washington might object to, unless they are changed during negotiations with EU member states, which begin on April 13. They voted to delay the EU’s tariff cuts until the US dropped its own levies to 15 per cent. They also agreed that the EU would reverse its decision if Trump imposed new levies and that the cuts would end on March 31 2028 without a new vote.