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MEPs and EU member states have reached a provisional agreement on the implementation of the trade agreement concluded last summer with the United States. This was announced by the Cypriot presidency of the EU. “The Council and Parliament have reached an agreement on the implementation of the tariff provisions of the EU-US Joint Declaration adopted on 21 August 2025,” the presidency said in a statement. US President Donald Trump has threatened the EU with new tariffs if the agreement is not ratified by July 4th.
The 27-country bloc struck a deal with Washington last July, setting tariffs of 15% on most European products, but the final version of the text had yet to be finalized by the EU, to Trump’s growing frustration. Negotiators from the European Parliament and capitals worked late into the night, finally emerging several hours after midnight with news of a hard-won compromise. “Today, the European Union delivers on its commitments,” Cyprus Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry Michael Damianos, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said in a press release. “Maintaining a stable, predictable and balanced transatlantic partnership is in the interests of both parties,” he added.
The deal with the EU puts the bloc on track to meet Trump’s deadline for ratifying the deal signed in Turnberry, Scotland, between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and hopefully turn the page after more than a year of transatlantic trade battles. Otherwise, Trump had warned the European Union to expect “much higher” tariffs and had already promised to raise tariffs on European cars and trucks by 15 to 25 percent. The barrage of tariffs unleashed by Trump before the Turnberry deal, including heavy taxes on steel, aluminum and auto parts, has pushed the bloc to cultivate trade ties around the world. But the EU cannot afford to neglect its €1.6 trillion ($1.9 trillion) relationship with the United States, its biggest trading partner.
To reach a compromise with member states, Parliament was under pressure to withdraw several amendments added to the text that the Americans considered unacceptable. One of the points of controversy involved a standstill clause, tightened by Parliament, that would have eliminated favorable tariff conditions for U.S. exporters if the United States violated the terms of the agreement. According to lawmakers, Parliament agreed to scale back its demands and, notably, the final text gave the United States until the end of the year to eliminate surcharges above 15% on steel components, rather than requiring it as a precondition.
Another clash was over the so-called “sunrise” and “sunset” clauses, under which the EU part of the deal would come into force once the United States fully complied with its commitments, and would expire unless renewed in 2028. The “sunrise” clause was eliminated entirely, while the “sunset” clause was postponed to the end of 2029, the lawmakers said. The European Parliament’s conditional green light in March came after months of delays caused by Trump’s plans for Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling that overturned many of the tariffs imposed by the president. The EPP has lobbied hard for the definitive implementation of the agreement, which it believes is vital to end harmful uncertainty for EU businesses.