Approval of the trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, initially reached in July of last year, is expected to be suspended by the European Parliament, according to sources close to the Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, reports BBC.
The suspension is expected to be announced Wednesday afternoon in Strasbourg, according to the British public broadcaster.
The agreement, negotiated last July on a golf course in Scotland owned by the White House, was reached between US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Under the deal, US tariffs on all EU imports would have been reduced to 15%, which was seen as a positive development at the time, as Trump had threatened 30% tariffs on EU goods.
However, the agreement still requires approval by the European Parliament, and the Committee on International Trade has not yet completed its review.
Earlier, just hours after Trump threatened US tariffs over European resistance to Greenland being brought under US control, German MEP Manfred Weber, a key member of the European Parliament, stated:
“Approval [of the US–EU trade agreement] is not possible at this stage.”
Meanwhile, as the deal was being finalized, the EU suspended retaliatory tariffs on $93 billion worth of US goods, according to the newspaper Nacionale.
This suspension is set to expire on February 9, and if no extension is granted or if the European Parliament does not approve the agreement, EU tariffs on US goods will come into effect on February 7.
