EU advances implementation of trade deal with U.S.

The European Parliament and the presidency of the European Council on Wednesday settled on a provisional agreement to lower or remove tariffs on a swath of U.S. industrial exports, advancing part of a trade deal between the United States and the EU that was struck last summer. The agreement would also cover some U.S. seafood and agricultural exports, including lobster.

The decision came a few weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to steeply raise tariffs on European goods if the European Union failed to implement its side of the 2025 deal by July 4. Once the text of the new agreement is finalized, the European governing bodies are expected to approve it well ahead of the deadline. The changes will take effect the day after they are published in the legislative journal, according to the European Council. The specific portion covering lobster imports will retroactively apply back to August 2025.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday called on European legislators to approve the agreement quickly.

Any other important details of the provisional agreement? It includes a section allowing the EU to suspend portions of the agreement if increases in U.S. imports greatly damage domestic producers (or threaten to do so). The EU can also suspend the agreement if the United States doesn’t fulfill its commitments or disrupts trade and investment relations with the EU—or if such behavior seems likely, according to the European Council. The EU may also specifically suspend its cuts to tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminium if the United States fails to lower its tariff rate on similar EU products to the agreed-upon 15% ceiling by the end of December.

The agreement will also expire at the end of 2029 unless the European governing bodies take further action.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the August 2025 framework of the trade deal between the United States and the EU.