The European Parliament’s top trade official called Sunday for an immediate freeze on ratification of the bloc’s transatlantic trade agreement with the United States, citing mounting legal and policy uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s latest round of tariff maneuvers.
Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s International Trade Committee, announced he would formally propose suspending all legislative work on the so-called Turnberry Agreement at an emergency session on Monday. “Pure tariff chaos on the part of the US administration,” Lange wrote on X. “No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other US trading partners.”
The proposal follows a US Supreme Court ruling Friday that struck down President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping global tariffs — a 6-3 decision the administration called “deeply disappointing.”
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Within hours, Trump signed an executive order imposing a new 10% global import duty under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute that caps presidential tariff authority at 15% and limits measures to 150 days without congressional approval.
On Saturday, Trump raised the rate to the maximum 15%, set to take effect on February 24. No president has previously invoked Section 122.
Lange questioned whether the administration’s pivot to a new legal authority amounted to a breach of the existing trade deal. He said the Parliament would not advance ratification until lawmakers secure a full legal assessment and explicit commitments from Washington on the agreement’s terms.
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The Turnberry Agreement, struck in July 2025 at Trump’s golf resort in Scotland, was designed to avert a full-scale transatlantic trade war. Under the deal, the US imposes a 15% import tax on 70% of European goods exported to America — a concession the EU accepted in exchange for granting zero tariffs on US imports into Europe. Critics within the bloc have long regarded the arrangement as commercially one-sided.
The European Commission declared the current climate incompatible with the “fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial” transatlantic relationship both sides outlined in their August 2025 joint statement.
“A deal is a deal,” the Commission said in a statement. “As the United States’ largest trading partner, the EU expects the US to honor its commitments.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot went further on Sunday, openly questioning whether the agreement retains validity. “One may be permitted to doubt that,” Barrot told France Inter. “And we will take the necessary measures in response.”
Lawmakers blocked an earlier ratification vote in January after Trump threatened additional tariffs tied to his push to acquire Greenland — threats he later walked back. Parliament had set a March timeline for final ratification before this latest breakdown. A second delay, if the Parliament approves Lange’s proposal on Monday, would push full ratification back by at least a year.
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