The European Parliament’s International Trade Committee decided this Monday, February 23, to suspend the ratification of the European Union’s trade agreement with the United States following the North American Supreme Court’s decision on tariffs and asked Washington for “legal clarity”.
“It is now official: the European Parliament’s work on the European Union (EU) – United States (US) agreement is suspended until further notice. Our negotiating team has just decided to suspend the legal implementation of the Turnberry agreement and postpone the vote scheduled for tomorrow [terça-feira]”, wrote the president of the parliamentary committee, Bernd Lange, in a post on the social network X.
According to the German MEP who coordinates this parliamentary committee, “there needs to be clarity and legal certainty before any additional measures can be taken”.
This European Parliament committee was scheduled to vote on Tuesday on its position on two legislative proposals aimed at implementing aspects of the agreement between the EU and the USA.
However, last Friday, the United States Supreme Court annulled the global tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump under an emergency powers law, considering that the law does not grant the head of state the authority to impose taxes on imports, a competence that the Constitution attributes to Congress.
For this reason, the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee held an extraordinary meeting this Monday in Brussels and reached this decision.
Also this Monday in Brussels, the European Commission said it was awaiting clarification from Washington on how the new series of 15% global tariffs announced by Donald Trump to replace those that were overturned by the country’s highest court will affect the transatlantic trade agreement.
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