A trade deal between the US and European Union is on hold after the European Parliament decided to freeze a ratification vote in response to President Donald Trump’s escalating threats to seize Greenland.
The Parliament’s trade committee postponed the vote indefinitely on Wednesday, casting doubt on whether the pact will ever get across the finish line.
The deal has been swept into the deepening crisis between the EU and US over Greenland, which has brought the transatlantic alliance to the brink of rupture. Trump is currently vowing to slap tariffs on several European countries until he is allowed to buy the island, a Danish territory.
“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,” said Bernd Lange, chair of Parliament’s trade committee, in a statement.
“We have been left with no alternative but to suspend work” on the trade deal, Lange added, “until the US decides to reengage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation.”
The tariff threat, which Trump made over the weekend, prompted EU lawmakers to reconsider their expected ratification vote on the US trade deal, which was struck with Washington last July. The agreement set a 15% tariff on most EU goods in exchange for a pledge to erase all tariffs on US industrial goods and some agricultural products. The pact was partially implemented but still needs Parliament’s approval to be finalized.
At the time, the EU concessions were seen as an effort to avoid a full-blown trade war with Trump and to maintain US security guarantees for the continent as Russia waged its war in Ukraine.
But the US president’s Greenland ultimatum has turbocharged long-running European criticism that the pact gave away too much, even prompting proponents to say that final approval should be withheld for now. Trump has said that a 10% tariff will go into effect on Feb. 1 for eight European countries, rising to 25% in June, unless he gets a deal for the “purchase of Greenland.”
Wednesday’s decision was expected after senior lawmakers from Parliament’s largest political groups proposed a delay on Saturday, following Trump’s tariff announcement.
Manfred Weber, leader of Parliament’s largest group, the center-right European People’s Party, said on Wednesday that “for us as EPP, and I think for all parliamentarians, it’s clear there will be no ratification, no zero percentage tariffs access to the EU for US products until we have clarified the question of reliability.”
EU leaders will then gather in Brussels on Thursday to discuss their response to Trump’s aggression. Options under consideration include counter tariffs on €93 billion ($109 billion) worth of US goods and the possible deployment of the so-called anti-coercion instrument, which allows the bloc to curb investments into the EU and impose more fees and tariffs.
“Europe prefers dialogue and solutions — but we are fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, told EU lawmakers on Wednesday morning.
Even before Trump’s Greenland saber-rattling, the EU-US trade deal faced a rocky path in the Parliament. A group of EU lawmakers opposed the deal from the start, and criticism mounted after the US extended a 50% metals tariff to hundreds of additional products. The US then demanded changes to EU tech rules in exchange for rolling back the expanded tariffs, drawing further ire from opponents.
