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EU Set to Unfreeze Trade Deal With US, Vote on Ratification
Process Restarted After Trump Backs Down on Greenland, Tariff Threats
European Union lawmakers are expected to vote on ratifying the bloc’s trade deal with the U.S., restarting the process after President Donald Trump walked back his latest threat to impose tariffs on European allies that opposed his plans to annex Greenland.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told reporters in Brussels on Jan. 22 that Trump’s reversal was enough to justify voting on the measure, which could have a preliminary vote in the coming days. Parliament’s approval is the final EU step needed for the trade accord to enter into force.
Lawmakers on Jan. 21 decided to indefinitely suspend the ratification process, citing the “coercive” threats by Trump. Hours after that vote, Trump defused the situation, saying he wouldn’t impose the levies, which were set to go into effect on Feb. 1.
“This means we can continue with our discussions internally with he EU-US trade deal, which had been paused,” Metsola said before an emergency meeting of EU leaders. “I’ll be taking it forward with my colleagues to be able to proceed.”
The trade deal was clinched last July and partially implemented. Many in Europe criticized the accord, which saw Brussels agree to remove nearly all tariffs on American products while accepting a 15% duty on most exports to the U.S. and 50% on steel and aluminum.
Trump’s push for Greenland has marked a low point in transatlantic relations, with the EU threatening to unleash never-before-used retaliatory measures, including its so-called anti-coercion instrument. The measure was designed primarily as a deterrent, and if needed, to respond to deliberate coercive actions from third countries that use trade measures as a means to pressure the policy choices of the EU or its members.
Trump’s U-turn came after a meeting with Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, late Jan. 21. Their accord for Greenland entailed the stationing of U.S. missiles, mining rights aimed at keeping Chinese interests out and a bolstered NATO presence, Bloomberg previously reported.
“When it comes to the protection of the Arctic, with a priority on Greenland, we have to spend more energy, more time, more focus on this because we know the sea lanes are opening up,” Rutte told Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in an interview in Davos.
Although Trump’s latest threat is off the table for now, the EU’s lead lawmaker on the U.S. trade deal and chair of the parliament’s trade committee, Bernd Lange, said that “there is no room for false security” as “the next threat is sure to come.”
More details on the deal struck on Greenland are needed “in order to decide how to proceed with the implementation of the EU-U.S. trade deal,” he wrote on social media, adding that his committee would discuss the way forward on Jan. 26.
Even before Trump’s Greenland saber-rattling, the EU-U.S. trade deal faced a rocky path in the Parliament. A group of EU lawmakers opposed the deal from the start, and criticism mounted after the U.S. extended a 50% metals tariff to hundreds of additional products. The U.S. then demanded changes to EU tech rules in exchange for rolling back the expanded tariffs, drawing further ire from opponents.
