EU likely to resume ratification of US trade deal, Metsola says

BRUSSELS, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The European Union will likely resume work on a trade deal with the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump took back a tariff threat over his attempt to acquire Greenland, the European Parliament’s president said on Thursday.

“We are happy to see that the escalation is off the table for now,” President Roberta Metsola said.

“This means that we can continue at this stage our discussions internally on the EU-U.S. trade deal, which had been paused pending the impending tariff threat.”

The European Parliament this week decided to suspend work on the trade deal because of Trump’s new tariff threats.

The EU assembly has been debating legislative proposals to remove many EU import duties on U.S. goods, a key part of the agreement struck in Turnberry, Scotland, at the end of July, as well as to continue zero duties for U.S. lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020. The proposals require approval by the parliament and EU governments. 

Many lawmakers have complained that the trade deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the U.S. sticks to a broad rate of 15%. However, they had previously appeared willing to accept it, albeit with conditions, such as an 18-month sunset clause and measures to respond to possible surges of U.S. imports.

The trade committee of the European Parliament had been due to set its position in votes on January 26-27.

Metsola said lawmakers were optimistic that discussions could resume soon to get the process back on track.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)