The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to adopt the EU-US deal struck last summer by US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry, Scotland.
The final greenlight needed to implement the agreement comes as Trump threatened on Monday to impose tariffs on French wine and champagne if Paris did not remove its digital tax on US Big Tech.
However, Trump’s latest threats of a trade war with EU countries did not prevent lawmakers from approving the deal. Four hundred and fortyMEPs voted in favour, 151 against, and 50 abstained in the vote on the main legislative act aimed at changing the trade terms.
The vote allows the EU to remove its duties on most US industrial goods, as agreed in the Turnberry deal, while Europeans commit to paying 15 percent US tariffs on goods exported to the United States.
Some lawmakers have consistently criticised the deal as imbalanced, but the Commission, which negotiated it on behalf of the EU, said it was the best agreement it could secure from the Americans.
