Eight months after the humiliation of Turnberry, Europe is finally stepping up. This Thursday, March 26, a vast majority of European deputies approved the agreement signed last July, adding a series of additional conditions to protect the EU against the whims of the unpredictable occupant of the White House. Until the last moment, the atmosphere was tense: the approval procedure had been frozen in January against the backdrop of an escalation around Greenland. More recently, American ambassador Andrew Puzder even went as far as to threaten Europe with stopping the deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) if they did not sign the agreement. Ruth Guerra, lawyer and specialist in international trade at KPMG, deciphers these new provisions for L’Express.
L’Express: The European Union has signed multiple agreements with its trading partners in recent months. How is this one different?
Ruth Guerra: It is an atypical agreement, both in the way it was negotiated and in terms of the types of clauses it contains. Traditionally, EU free trade agreements are based on a reciprocity logic, with a reduction in tariffs on both sides. Here, we are in an asymmetrical scheme: Europe benefits from a ceiling on tariffs, while American companies get their tariffs reduced to zero towards Europe. Therefore, we cannot really speak of a free trade agreement between the EU and the United States, but only a trade agreement.
What are the new provisions introduced by Parliament?
Among the protection mechanisms, there is notably a sunset clause setting a deadline of March 31, 2028: on this date, the agreement automatically expires, unless a new legislative proposal is adopted with a thorough impact assessment. In traditional agreements, there are safeguard clauses in case of major imbalance, but no defined expiration date.
