The head of the European Parliament’s trade committee said Wednesday he has “doubts” about aspects of the EU’s trade deal with the Trump administration and predicted the deal could be amended during the legislative approval process.
“A lot of questions are there, and I guess there will be some amendments,” said committee chairman Bernd Lange, adding that “myself and also some colleagues of mine have doubts about the deal.”
Lange stopped short of outright opposing the agreement struck July 27 between the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and U.S. President Donald Trump. The deal imposes a 15% tariff on European goods while lowering EU tariffs on U.S. cars and industrial goods to zero; some EU goods including aircraft, cork and generic pharmaceuticals, were exempted from the 15% rates.
The deal has had a mixed reception in Europe, with business associations saying it imposes high costs that will impede exports to the U.S. Von der Leyen says that it will lower a painful 27.5% tariff on autos and bring stability and predictability for businesses.
Lange however said “there is no security or predictability,” citing a U.S. decision two weeks after the deal was struck to include some 400 different goods containing steel such as pumps and motorcycle under a 50% steel and aluminum tariff instead of the 15% tariff.
A top EU trade official urged the committee to approve the deal, saying the rate was low enough to keep trade flowing and maintain EU companies access to the U.S. market while avoiding a worse trade conflict. “You need to look at the alternative,” said Sabine Weyand, director general for trade.
The agreement has been set down only in a 3 1/2 joint statement that left room for further talks on key issues.
Trump faces questions about whether he exceeded his legal authorities by declaring a national emergency under a 1977 law to impose the broad tariffs. A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld a previous lower court ruling that the president lacked the power to exact tariffs of that magnitude without going through Congress or using other legal mechanisms, a decision that Trump said Tuesday will in turn be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump aroused concern Aug. 26 by threatening tariffs in response to EU digital regulation, which EU officials said were not part of the deal.
“Where will it end – we are just getting more and more demands from Trump,” said deputy Saskia Bricmont, a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group.
Parliamentary action would be needed to implement the EU side of the tariffs deal. Lange did not say what the amendments might contain. The leader of one group in parliament, the center-left Socialists and Democrats, has come out against the deal but the group has only 136 seats in the 720-seat parliament and cannot stop the deal by itself. Lange is a member of the group.
The European Commission underlined its determination to expand cooperative trade to other partners beyond the US, on Wednesday sending free trade deals with Mexico and the Mercosur trading bloc in Latin America for ratification by member states.
The Mercosur deal would create what EU officials call the world’s largest free trade zone with 700 million people and lower high tariffs on EU farm exports in Latin America. It also would protect some politically sensitive EU farm products, particularly beef, in an attempt to mollify objections from EU farm lobbies in France and Poland.
A limited amount of Mercosur beef – equal to around 1.5% of the European market – would face a moderate 7.5% tariff, but quantities above that would be hit with prohibitively high rates. There is also 6.3 billion euros in support for farmers in case of unexpected market disruptions.
