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European Union lawmakers reached a tentative deal on Wednesday to scrap import tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods and give some U.S. agriculture and seafood products easier access to the bloc's market, the European Parliament said in a May 20 press release.
The Parliament and the Council of the European Union moved to write into EU law a framework trade accord reached with the U.S. in August 2025. Simultaneously, they empowered the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to suspend some or all of the new tariff breaks if Washington D.C. allows duties on European steel and aluminum derivative products to climb above the agreed 15% ceiling.
"We need a safety net in the relation with the United States, because at the moment it's totally unsecure and not predictable how the United States are acting in the field of tariffs," Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, said at a press conference. "Therefore, we, as European Parliament, made a clear statement with 417 votes for such a safety net."
The co-legislators agreed that the Commission could suspend tariff preferences awarded to the U.S. if, by Dec. 31, 2026, the country continues to apply a tariff higher than the agreed-upon rate for EU steel and aluminum derivatives. The Commission must report to Parliament and the Council by Dec. 1.
