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Members of the European Parliament are preparing to suspend the approval of the EU–US trade agreement amid plans by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries that supported Greenland, Bloomberg reports.
Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, said a deal with the United States is no longer feasible and that the EU’s tariff-reduction agreement for US goods should be put on hold.
The trade deal, concluded by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump in the summer of 2025, has been partially implemented but still requires parliamentary approval. If EPP lawmakers side with left-leaning political groups, they are likely to have enough votes to delay or block ratification.
Under the agreement, the US would impose a 15% tariff on most EU goods in exchange for the bloc scrapping duties on US industrial products and some agricultural items. Von der Leyen agreed to the deal in an effort to avert a full-scale trade war, but critics in the European Parliament have long argued it disproportionately favors Washington. Opposition intensified after the US expanded 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum to hundreds of additional EU products following the July deal.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer criticized the EU in December for failing to implement certain provisions of the agreement, including rules governing major technology companies.
Bernd Lange, the long-serving chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, said work on implementing the agreement should be suspended until Trump’s threats cease. He also urged the EU to consider using its anti-coercion instrument, the bloc’s strongest trade defense mechanism.
