POLITICO — 2026-05-07
News from Brussels
Talks between EU lawmakers and governments on implementing a U.S. trade deal ended without a breakthrough on Wednesday night.
The outcome risks provoking the wrath of President Donald Trump, who has threatened to hit European automakers with 25 percent tariffs if the EU fails to put into effect the transatlantic trade accord struck at his Scottish golf club last year.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič urged negotiators to reach an agreement that would help stabilize trade relations with Washington, according to one person familiar with the meeting. But after around six hours of talks, they emerged without a deal.
“Good and constructive negotiations this evening with the Council and the Commission,” said MEP Karin Karlsbro, who was representing the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. “It is important that we get a Trump-proof agreement in place before we have a final deal.”
The inconclusive outcome puts the ball back in Trump’s court, after his ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, said earlier that Washington would impose the 25 percent auto tariff “relatively soon” if negotiators fail to reach a quick agreement.
“You’ve got time to fix it, the time is now,” Puzder told Bloomberg TV in Brussels. “If you do that he would probably take another look at it.”
Under the handshake deal reached at Trump’s Turnberry resort last July, the EU agreed to scrap its tariffs on U.S. industrial goods, while Washington would cap tariffs on most goods at 15 percent.
But the EU has yet to make good on that by passing enabling legislation, infuriating Trump and increasing pressure on the European Commission — which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 members — to get it on the books.
The Commission’s top trade official, Sabine Weyand, told the European Parliament’s trade committee earlier that she looked forward to a meeting “which presents a breakthrough and which shows the EU stands by its commitments.”
“I am confident that … we have all the ingredients that allow us to show that we remain a reliable partner while giving us all the instruments to react to any developments that we see,” Weyand also told trade lawmakers.
While the Commission and a majority of EU member countries want to get Turnberry over the line, EU lawmakers have dug in their heels — dismayed by Trump’s threats earlier this year to annex Greenland, a Danish territory. They have also reassessed whether the deal is still a good one after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Trump’s original tariffs in February.
Led by veteran trade committee Chair Bernd Lange, lawmakers have called to add extra conditions that would stall the deal until Trump cuts steel tariffs, suspend it if he threatens the EU’s territorial integrity and terminate it before the end of his term.
So far the sides haven’t agreed on any of the most controversial discussion points, said one official in the Council.
“There was progress, and the goal is to finish negotiations soon. But the two sides need to check with political groups and member countries respectively to see what they are willing to accept,” the official added of the late-night talks.
Lange, the Parliament’s chief negotiator, said both sides are “converging toward an agreement” but added that more time was needed.
Negotiators are aiming to meet again May 19, though that date remains to be confirmed, another Council official said.
The two sides have said they want to achieve a final compromise by July, which is when the stopgap tariffs imposed by Trump would expire. But that would be too late, according to Puzder, the U.S. ambassador, who said the entire trade deal is now at risk.
“If a deal isn’t a deal, then I think the United States would walk away from it,” he said.