The European Parliament and the Cyprus Presidency, which represents EU member states, failed to reach an agreement last night on the abolition of EU customs duties on U.S. industrial goods agreed under the Turnberry agreement signed last summer.
This decline comes just days after the US ’ threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on EU vehicles, intensifying pressure on European negotiators; The rate exceeded the 15 percent ’ ceiling for U.S. tariffs on EU goods agreed last summer at Turnberry’ by U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Despite the unsuccessful round of negotiations, which lasted until late at night, the Cyprus presidency said the talks created a “positive momentum between both sides, with negotiators registering ”Progression“.
The clock is ticking
Time is ticking and pressure has intensified in recent days from the European Commission, which has pushed for the rapid implementation of the EU-US agreement, and from the leaders of Parliament, ’'s largest political group, the conservative European People's Party, ’, which argues that businesses need certainty.
Cypriot Trade Minister Michael Damianos tried to reassure them, saying that Council ’ was determined to act quickly on the implementation of the agreement, adding: “We are fully committed to maintaining our constructive relationship with the European Parliament.”
Euronews’e, an EU diplomat, said yesterday's talks were mainly aimed at revealing the political positions of both sides, with technical negotiations expected at a later stage. Negotiators are now aiming for a new round of talks in ’ on May 19.
Parliament has added strong guarantees to the EU-US agreement; However, member states do not support all of them, although they widely agreed on the need to protect the deal from Trump’'s future threats to EU vehicles or Greenland’ earlier this year.
German socialist lawmaker Bernd Lange said “ was the way to go, but added that negotiators had made good progress on the ” security mechanism and the review and evaluation of the main regulation.
Parliament's demands include making the deal provisional, ending in March 2028’, just months before the end of Trump’'s second term.
