European Parliament approves Turnberry trade deal with the United States

The European Parliament approved the EU side of the Turnberry trade deal with the United States on Tuesday, clearing the last major legislative step needed to cut tariffs on many American goods before President Trump’s July 4 deadline and reducing, at least for now, the risk of a new transatlantic trade fight.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg voted 440 to 151, with 50 abstentions, to remove tariffs on all industrial goods exported from the United States to the European Union and to grant preferential access for a broad range of American farm products. In a separate vote, by 444 to 152 with 54 abstentions, they also extended duty-free treatment for U.S. lobster imports and widened it to include processed lobster.

The vote follows approval by EU member states in late May and allows Brussels to move ahead with its part of the agreement reached in July 2025 at Trump’s golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland. Under that framework, the EU agreed to eliminate import duties on U.S. industrial goods, while most EU goods entering the American market would face a 15% tariff.

The parliamentary approval comes after months of delay. Reuters reported that nearly 11 months passed between the political agreement and the EU’s implementation of the tariff cuts, a lag that prompted Trump to warn that tariffs could rise much higher if Europe did not act before July 4. With Tuesday’s vote, the bloc is now positioned to meet that deadline.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the vote that “a deal is a deal - and the EU is delivering its part.” The legislation approved by lawmakers is set to expire at the end of 2029 and includes safeguard mechanisms that would allow the EU to suspend concessions if Washington fails to honor the terms of the agreement.

That point remains central in Brussels and in European industry. Reuters reported that German business groups broadly welcomed the vote because it offers more predictability for exporters, even as they said U.S. tariffs remain a serious burden and that Washington must now fully implement its side of the arrangement. Erik Severinson, chief commercial officer at Volvo Cars, said greater certainty would help production planning, supply chain management and investment decisions.

The agreement has been politically sensitive in Europe because many officials and lawmakers see it as uneven. The EU is opening its market further to American industrial and agricultural products, while accepting that most European exports will still face a 15% tariff in the United States. Even so, supporters argued that locking in those terms is preferable to renewed tariff escalation between two of the world’s largest trading powers.

Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish liberal lawmaker who has closely followed the file, said after the vote that “this will not be the last debate on transatlantic trade, but we have laid the foundation for stability while Trump continues to create chaos.”

Uncertainty remains on the U.S. side. Reuters reported that the Trump administration plans to put in place broad 15% tariffs on EU goods under the Turnberry framework before July 24, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier global tariffs. That leaves open a key question for European officials and exporters: whether Washington will carry out the agreement in full and on time.

The issue matters beyond manufacturing because Trump has again singled out French wine and Champagne in his tariff threats. According to Reuters, he said on Monday that he would impose a 100% tariff on French wine if Paris did not scrap its digital sales tax. CNN Wire reported that Trump told The New York Post he had asked President Emmanuel Macron not to tax American companies and that if France kept doing so, “I’ll have no choice but to put a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France.”

CNN Wire said France’s 3% digital services tax mainly affects large U.S. technology companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Meta. It also noted that Trump has made similar threats since the tax was enacted in 2019 and had previously warned in January of a 200% levy on French wines and Champagne, though those earlier threats were not carried out.

For wine producers and importers, another tariff shock would carry immediate commercial risks. The United States is a crucial export market for French wine and Champagne, and a 100% duty could sharply raise shelf prices, squeeze margins across importers, distributors and restaurants, and shift demand toward bottles from other countries or domestic alternatives. Even without new duties taking effect, repeated threats can complicate pricing decisions and purchasing plans for beverage companies on both sides of the Atlantic.

CNN Wire said Trump has recently returned his focus to tariffs after other international crises had pushed trade lower on his public agenda. The White House denied any connection between developments in the Middle East and Trump’s latest warning toward France. Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, told CNN that there had been “no change in posture” and that the president was responding to an issue on which he had already made his position clear.

The broader economic backdrop remains unsettled. CNN Wire reported that inflation in the United States was running at 2.4% annually before fighting involving Israel, Iran and U.S. interests intensified, then rose to 4.2% last month, with energy accounting for 60% of the increase. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was lower at 0.2% month over month and 2.9% annually in May. The same report said employers added an average of 188,000 jobs a month over the past three months after hiring had been held back by earlier tariff uncertainty.

Those figures do not directly determine whether Turnberry holds, but they show why trade policy remains politically charged in Washington as well as Brussels. For now, Europe has taken its formal step. The next test is whether the United States follows through with its own commitments while avoiding fresh tariff threats against sectors such as wine that sit outside the main industrial bargain but remain exposed to sudden retaliation.