The European Parliament could reject Brussels’ bid to lower levies on US exports, a senior EU lawmaker has warned, jeopardising the bloc’s effort to ease Donald Trump’s punishing car tariffs.
Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s international trade committee, told Euractiv that he is “not sure” whether lawmakers will back a forthcoming European Commission proposal to eliminate duties on US industrial and food products.
The draft, which the Commission has pledged to introduce by the end of August, is needed to unlock Washington’s promise to slash its EU car tariffs from 27.5% to 15% – the rate applied to most other EU goods under the recently agreed EU-US framework agreement.
“No, I’m not sure that the Parliament will adopt the proposal,” Lange said. “For example, for me, it’s not clear why it’s justified that products made with steel and aluminium going from the EU to the US should face a 50% tariff, but that they should get zero when they are coming from the US to the EU.”
The veteran MEP also suggested that Parliament’s approval will ultimately hinge on the proposal’s specific details. “Is this a temporary legislation? Is there a review clause? And is there a link to unpredictable developments in the US?”
According to an EU-US joint statement on the deal, published last week, EU exporters are “expected” to face a reduced auto tariff rate “from the first day of the same month in which” the proposal is introduced.
The Commission has argued that the proposed legislation will not need to be approved by EU countries or the European Parliament before Washington lowers its auto levy.
“It’s only the proposal stage itself that will trigger the US to also move forward – so it is our input, not our output, that matters here,” said one senior Commission official.
The Commission will follow “the ordinary legislative procedure,” EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told reporters last week, adding that this will entail “the full involvement of the Parliament, and of course the Council, to deliver the results we are committed to and which is reflected in the joint statement.”
Šefčovič also noted that the proposal will stem the “bleeding” in Europe’s export-dependent car industry, which is struggling to cope with increasingly competitive Chinese electric vehicles as well as Trump’s tariffs.
The US is the EU’s second-largest car export market after the UK, with 758,000 vehicles worth €38.9 billion shipped across the Atlantic last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, a Brussels-based industry group.
Digital ‘blackmail’
Lange’s comments on Tuesday came just hours after Trump threatened “substantial additional tariffs” on US trading partners that “attack” American tech firms by imposing digital taxes or services regulations.
Trump and other senior US administration officials, including Vice-President JD Vance, have repeatedly condemned the EU’s digital laws, claiming they constitute a form of “digital censorship” and unfairly discriminate against US tech giants, including Google, Apple, and Meta.
On Tuesday, the Commission staunchly defended its digital regulations and affirmed the bloc’s “sovereign right” to regulate tech firms operating in Europe.
“The EU’s digital rulebook is not part of our trade deal agreement with the US, and we will proceed with the implementation of our framework agreement,” Paula Pinho, EU chief spokesperson, told reporters.
Trump’s threat also enraged EU lawmakers, with Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a French centrist MEP who also sits on the Parliament’s trade committee, going as far as to accuse the US president of “blackmail”.
EU diplomats and lawmakers – including Lange – remain uncertain about when the Commission’s proposal will be released, although some have suggested that it could be announced as early as Wednesday. “The Commission is working hard,” Lange said.
Vedrenne also told Euractiv that the Commission must put the incoming legislation to a vote in the European Parliament if it wants “democratic support” for the deal.
Eddy Wax contributed to reporting.
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