The European Parliament’s trade committee is due to vote on Thursday on legislation to implement parts of the 2025 EU-US trade framework, after two delays driven by concerns that Washington was not fully honouring the agreement.
BRUSSELS — The European Parliament is set to take a further step this week on the delayed EU-US trade deal, with its Committee on International Trade scheduled to vote on Thursday on legislation implementing parts of the 2025 framework agreement between Brussels and Washington.
The vote had been postponed twice after MEPs raised doubts over whether the United States was complying with the substance of the agreement reached in 2025. The lawmakers have held back because they did not believe Washington was fully sticking to its side of the arrangement.
The legislation concerns tariff elements of the EU-US framework agreed last year. The package would remove EU import duties on US industrial goods, improve access for some US agricultural products, and extend the zero-duty regime for US lobsters first agreed in 2020. The European Parliament’s legislative train file identifies the procedure as the implementation of certain tariff aspects of the 2025 EU-US Framework Agreement.
The parliamentary timetable now appears to be moving again. The INTA committee’s published agenda for 18 and 19 March confirms that the committee is meeting in Brussels on both days, with the Thursday session providing the window for the expected vote. Parliament’s legislative tracking page also notes that the file had originally been scheduled for committee adoption on 24 February 2026 before slipping.
The core political problem has been less about the legal text itself than about trust in the broader transatlantic trade relationship. Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s trade committee and rapporteur on the file, said the EU should only accept US tariffs that are consistent with the terms of the agreement. He warned that any departure from the agreed substance would be unacceptable.
That concern intensified after shifts in US trade policy earlier this year. The Parliament had already announced on 23 February that legislative work would be put on hold following a US Supreme Court ruling that affected the legal basis of some American tariffs. Parliament said at the time that the changed circumstances required further assessment before the House could proceed.
Lawmakers have now inserted what is described as a “sunrise clause”, making EU tariff reductions conditional on US compliance with the agreement. That amendment appears to have broken the deadlock and allowed the committee vote to proceed. Even so, the measure remains some way from final enactment. Further talks between Parliament and EU member states will still be required, making final passage unlikely before April.
The substance of the deal remains politically sensitive. Critics argue that the arrangement is uneven, with the EU reducing most of its tariffs while the United States maintains a general 15% tariff rate. Supporters say the framework offers a workable route to stabilise transatlantic trade relations after a period of repeated tariff disputes. Opponents contend that it risks locking in an imbalanced settlement unless US compliance is closely tested.
For Brussels, the significance of this week’s vote lies in what it says about the Parliament’s willingness to continue with a pragmatic trade settlement while reserving the right to withhold final approval if Washington shifts course again. That makes the file not only a trade measure, but also a test of how far MEPs trust the present US administration to maintain predictable terms.
The immediate outcome on Thursday will not settle the wider question of EU-US trade relations. But it should indicate whether the Parliament believes the agreement remains viable enough to move forward, or whether the compliance concerns that stalled the process for weeks are merely being deferred to a later stage.
