EU halts trade deal with US in major stand against Donald Trump

Trump (Image: Getty)

The European Parliament has said work on an EU-US trade deal has been halted. Bernd Lange, chair of Parliament’s International Trade Committee and standing rapporteur for the US, said the decision was taken following a meeting of political group representatives.

Mr Lange said the European Parliament had been preparing its official stance on two pieces of legislation linked to the Turnberry Deal, which would have allowed talks to begin with EU governments and put the EU’s promises under the agreement into law. The Turnberry legislative proposals are the legal measures needed to put the EU-US trade deal into effect, including plans to remove tariffs on US industrial goods and allow more American food products into the EU under a quota system. He said the deal would have removed tariffs on US industrial products and introduced a quota-based system allowing limited amounts of American agricultural goods to enter the EU at reduced or zero tariff rates. However, Mr Lange warned that relations had deteriorated sharply in recent months. He said:"By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the US is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-US trade relations. Today, the shadow rapporteurs of the International Trade Committee echoed the European Parliament’s unshakable commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland."