The European Parliament gives the green light to US trade agreement

(AFP) The European Parliament's International Trade Committee on Thursday gave a first green light to the agreement between the United States and the European Union, whose ratification by the countries of the bloc has been stalled for several months.

With its vote, the parliamentary committee authorized the elimination of the tariffs applied in the E.U. to imports of U.S. products, as committed by Brussels in the original agreement, although accompanied by multiple safeguards.

The safeguard clauses imposed by the Commission include limiting the elimination of European tariffs to two years and delaying or even suspending the measure if the Americans backtrack on their commitments.

By the original agreement, the United States committed to limit tariffs on most European products to 15%, half of the 30% that President Donald Trump had threatened to impose.

The implementation of this agreement will still have to be approved by the plenary of MEPs in a vote whose date has not yet been announced.

This first favorable vote suggests that approval of the agreement is now well underway in the European Parliament, after a sequence of unexpected twists and turns.

After its signing last year in Scotland, the agreement was harshly criticized in European capitals and poorly received in the European Parliament.

In the legislature, MEPs reproached the European Commission (the E.U.'s executive arm) for having accepted too many concessions from the U.S.

When the parliamentary approval process seemed to be on track at the beginning of the year, two events again stalled the negotiations.

First, it was Trump's declared ambitions for Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, which led to an initial suspension of the work in committee.

Subsequently, a U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidated most of the tariffs imposed by Trump as the centerpiece of his trade policy.

Against that backdrop, MEPs again suspended the process, pending "clarifications" from the United States.

According to the European Commission, the United States has committed to respect its commitments to the E.U., despite legal uncertainties about the U.S. tariffs.