At a Glance
- The European Parliament has suspended all work on a major trade deal with the United States.
- The move follows President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on seven EU nations plus the U.K. unless the U.S. gains control of Greenland.
- Committee chair Bernd Lange cited “continued and escalating threats” against Greenland and Denmark.
- Why it matters: The suspension derails a July agreement that would have capped most U.S. tariffs on EU goods at just 15%.
The European Union’s legislative body on Wednesday halted work on the formal approval and implementation of the trade deal it reached last summer with President Donald Trump.
“Given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have been left with no alternative but to suspend work” on the deal, said Bernd Lange, the chairman of the European Parliament’s international trade committee.
“Until the U.S. decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation,” no steps to move the deal forward would be taken, Lange said in a statement.
“Our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake,” he added in a post on X. “Business as usual impossible.”
The Deal on Ice
The announcement came after Trump on Saturday said he would hit seven European Union countries, plus the U.K., with tariffs if they did not allow the United States to control Greenland.
The E.U. trade deal was reached in July during a visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Trump’s golf club in Turnberry, Scotland.
Key elements of the now-frozen agreement:
- A 15% cap on U.S. tariffs applied to most imports from the E.U.
- Removal of all tariffs on some imports, such as generic pharmaceuticals
- Lower E.U. tariffs on select U.S. goods, benefiting American agricultural and industrial exporters
The rate was among the lowest received by any trading partner last year, according to News Of Los Angeles‘s investigation.
From Handshake to Halt
When the deal was first announced, the European Commission said it “restores stability and predictability.”
But all that changed with Trump’s Saturday tariff threat.
“In politics as in business, a deal is a deal,” von der Leyen said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum. “And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”
The suspension leaves America’s largest trading partner in limbo and casts uncertainty over trans-Atlantic economic relations.
