EU Policy

Published on 06/11/2025 – 20:47 GMT+1
•Updated
20:56

The Commission launched on Thursday an investigation into a potential collusion between the two stock exchange groups, Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq, in the market for derivative financial products.

At the heart of EU antitrust enforcer’s concerns is the potential coordination of their conduct in the listing, trading, and clearing of those derivatives, which, if proven, would be in violation of EU’s competition rules.

EU law encourage competition between different economic operators to ensure that prices are set fairly by the market, free from any collusion or abuse of dominant position.

In September 2024, the Commission carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of both financial groups, as permitted under EU rules.

It targeted their practices around financial derivatives, which are contracts whose value changes depending on the price of another asset, such as stocks or commodities.

“Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq entities may have entered into agreements or concerted practices not to compete,” the Commission said in a statement, “in addition, the entities may have allocated demand, coordinated prices and exchanged commercially sensitive information.”

A deal made in 1999

Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq are among the world’s largest stock exchange groups.

According to EU competition commissioner Teresa Ribera, such behaviours could also affect “the proper functioning of the Capital Markets Union – a cornerstone for innovation, financial stability and growth.”

The completion of the European Capital Markets Union — a barrier-free market for capitals aimed at reducing their costs for listed companies and improve investment conditions — is one of the priorities of Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen.

If there was a collusion between Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq, it would constitute “an artificial barrier” on the EU market, Commission’s spokesperson Thomas Regnier told Euronews.

Deutsche Börse reacted in a statement saying : “We are engaging constructively with the European Commission.”

The stock exchange group explained that the Commission’s investigation concerned a 1999 deal, which Deutsche Börse considers “pro-competitive”.

“It aimed to build deeper liquidity in the respective Nordic derivatives markets and create efficiencies,” it argued, adding: “It provided clear benefits for market participants and was public.”

The 1999 deal was made between Deutsche Börse’s derivatives branch Eurex and the Helsinki Stock Exchange, which was acquired by Nasdaq in 2008, for the Nordic derivatives markets, it said.

Published on
16/10/2025 – 11:19 GMT+2

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In the global trade storm unleashed since US President Donald Trump’s return to power, Italian pasta producers are feeling very much alone — while their case is a special one.

On 4 September, the US Department of Commerce announced preliminary tariffs of 91.74% on 13 pasta brands.

If upheld, the tariffs would take effect in January 2026, delivering a significant blow to Italy, which exported nearly €700 million worth of pasta to the United States in 2024.

Admittedly, the case is not new. It originated in 1996, when US pasta producers accused Italian manufacturers of dumping — selling their products in the American market at prices lower than those in Italy.

Since then, Italian producers have been regularly subject to tariffs, but never of the magnitude now decided by the Trump administration.

Combined with the 15% duties that now apply to EU imports into the US, the total tariff burden would reach 106.74% if implemented. The pasta makers say this is brutal.

“It’s unfair, it’s a protectionist action of the US against Italian pasta,” Margherita Mastromauro, president of Unione Italiana Food, the largest association of food producers in Italy, told Euronews.

“We need help, because a large part of our companies are involved. With a duty so high, it means that all these companies will not export until the new review will be done.”

The investigation concerned the period between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, Italian producers hope the review of the year 2025 will bring them some relief. But for now, the future remains uncertain.

Can the fight become political?

The companies have been scrambling to get these tariffs lifted since September.

Two of them, Garofalo and La Molisana, have taken legal action against the decision.

The Italian government and the European Commission have begun to get involved. However, room for manoeuvre remains limited in what is, according to the president of Unione Italiana Food, more a “legal” than a “political” matter.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has said the duties were “disproportionate” and has joined the case as an “interested party” to weigh in favour of this key sector of Italy’s economy.

On its side, the Commission told Euronews that the issue could be raised within the framework of the new dialogue initiated with the Trump administration on tariffs, since the agreement reached in July ended weeks of discord between the two sides of the Atlantic.

But an EU official also conceded that, unlike the unilateral tariffs imposed on other European products — which violate rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) — the US anti-dumping action against pasta appears to be done traditionally, as a trade defence mechanism allowed by the WTO, which regulates international trade between its member countries.

“We are closely monitoring the case, and if there are flaws in the investigation, we will question it and we will raise the issue with the WTO,” the official told Euronews.

If that were the case, it could lead to retaliatory measures from the EU.

Socialist Italian MEP Brando Benifei, who leads the parliamentary delegation for relations with the US, condemned the US action that he considers “clearly discriminatory”.

“This has to be solved and we urge the Commission to act through,” Benifei told Euronews.

Published on
08/10/2025 – 18:10 GMT+2

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It’s a narrow win — but a win nonetheless — for the opponents of the controversial trade agreement reached with the Mercosur countries in December 2024.

A show of hands from European lawmakers on Wednesday saw 269 of them reject a paragraph of a resolution on the EU’s political strategy for Latin America that welcomed the conclusion of the Mercosur agreement — offering a preview of the showdown taking shape in the European Parliament over the controversial trade deal.

The Strasbourg vote was decided by just 10 votes, as 259 other MEPs voted in favour, reflecting a divided hemicycle over this controversial agreement.

“The European Parliament is once again expressing its scepticism about the trade agreement with Mercosur,” French MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew) wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

“The political signal is very clear: there are more MEPs who have profound doubts about the merits of this agreement than MEPs who want it adopted immediately.”

The European Commission, which had been at the helm during more than twenty years of negotiations for this agreement, submitted it for ratification to the Council and for its consent to the European Parliament on 3 September.

However, it remains uncertain whether the final step for the EU to conclude the agreement will proceed smoothly.

The deal, which liberalises trade between Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — and the EU, reduces tariffs on many products, including some agricultural goods, raising concerns among European farmers about facing unfair competition from Latin American producers.

‘We will continue fighting’

In the Parliament, a group of lawmakers is preparing to submit a resolution to their colleagues calling for the EU Court of Justice to be seized to suspend the deal’s approval.

Opponents of the agreement also fear that Mercosur countries will not comply with European phytosanitary and environmental standards.

The agreement “abandons agriculture and livestock, harms the environment, fuels deforestation, rolls out the red carpet for extractive multinationals,” Spanish MEP Irene Montero (The Left), who prompted the vote on Wednesday, told Euronews.

“We will continue fighting to ensure that this agreement is not ratified and to stop the danger it poses to the environment and our primary sector.”

Supporters of the deal argue, on the other hand, that this text — which creates a free trade area of 700 million people — is necessary in the new global trade context to face Chinese competition in Mercosur countries and diversify trading partners, especially as the US is raising tariff barriers around its market.

The part of the resolution that was rejected welcomed the conclusion of the deal’s negotiations, highlighting “the fact that the agreement would be a real game changer for the relationship between the two regions.”

The deal “would be the largest trade agreement ever signed by the EU in terms of population, covering more than 700 million citizens, and the most significant in terms of its economic impact,” the resolution emphasised.

The resolution also stressed the “geopolitical value” of the deal, “as an essential tool for advancing the EU’s strategic interests in the current international context.”

The plenary vote on the Mercosur agreement itself has not yet been scheduled. A source familiar with the matter told Euronews that the European Parliament’s administration hopes it will be on the MEPs’ agenda by the end of the year.

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In the midst of negotiating a long-awaited trade deal with India, European Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič is facing a real headache: how to avoid a clash with Pakistan while resisting pressure from India to recognise the Indian origin of the long-grained, fragrant basmati rice.

“This is of course one of the issues which is on the list,” Šefčovič admitted on 12 September as he was back from a round of negotiation in New Delhi.

New discussions are taking place in Brussels this week, as both India and the European Union have set themselves the goal of reaching a trade deal before the end of the year, with the new tariff policy of the Trump administration putting both partners under pressure to build new trade ties.  

Of course, basmati rice will be among the issues discussed between Šefčovič and his Indian counterparts, as India wants its geographical indication (GI) protected in Europe.

But such recognition would not come easily, since its rival neighbour Pakistan — which has been in conflict with India over the disputed Kashmir region since the partition of the two countries in 1947 — also demands the EU to recognise basmati as of Pakistani origin.

The protection of GIs carries significant economic stakes. Trade talks between the EU and its partners usually include a separate section dedicated to it. Owing to its rich artisanal and culinary heritage, the EU — largely thanks to France, Italy and Spain — holds the largest number of GIs in the world.

In trade negotiations, Brussels seeks to have as many of its products as possible protected by the other party to prevent counterfeiting in that country, with France’s champagne and Italy’s famed Parmigiano Reggiano cheese being the most commonly forged products.

And the other party to the negotiation can accept, provided the agreement also defends its own interests and GIs.

The failure of a joint recognition

If it were up to the EU alone, it would have recognised basmati rice as Indian and Pakistani long ago — but it’s not that simple.

At the beginning, things hadn’t started off so badly. In fact, India and Pakistan had jointly led a fight against a US company RiceTec, which had obtained a patent on basmati rice in the late 1990s. In 2001, the US Patent and Trademark Office revoked that patent.

A few years later, to protect the origin of basmati in the EU, Islamabad and New Delhi collaborated between 2004 and 2008 on a joint application to the European Commission for the recognition of their shared heritage over the rice which comes from the Punjab region, situated on the border between India and Pakistan.

But the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 160 people were killed and which India attributed to Pakistani intelligence services, shattered the joint efforts of the two countries and reshuffled the deck.

After years of deadlock and tension, India unilaterally submitted a request for GI registration to the European Commission in 2018.

The application states that the rice, characterised by “an exquisite aroma, sweet taste, soft texture, delicate curvature,” is grown in the Indo-Gangetic plains, a geographic zone divided between India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Nepal, which also includes the Punjab region.

In the months that followed, Pakistan opposed India’s application, perceiving it as an attempt to secure exclusive use of the term “basmati”.

And after unsuccessful exchanges between the lawyers of both parties, Pakistan submitted its own request for GI status in 2023, listing not only the Indo-Gangetic plains but also four districts of the much-disputed Kashmir — Mirpur, Bhimber, Poonch, and Bagh — as places where basmati rice is grown.

Both sides deny requests for exclusive recognition

After several years of attempting to mediate between the two rival brothers, the EU found itself caught in the trap of territorial recognition of Kashmir — the core of the territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.

“The Commission is trying to defuse a geopolitical conflict,” Matteo Mariano, expert in trademarks at Novagraaf law firm said.

“It could have said ‘first come, first served,’ but it chose not to, considering that the territorial issues between India and Pakistan are not its concern.”

Sources from both Pakistan and India that were contacted by Euronews denied that their country was asking for exclusive recognition of the basmati origin. Yet, the path to a common solution does not seem to be emerging.

In the midst of negotiations for a much broader trade agreement — ranging from automotive markets to dairy products to public procurement — the EU finds itself walking a tightrope.

“If the Commission is strong-handed, it can force a joint registration by Pakistan and India”, Mariano said. “This depends on the importance of the trade agreement for India and whether the EU has time to block negotiations on GIs,” he explained.

According to the lawyer, if India wants to have doors opened for itself, the EU can leverage that to benefit its own companies.

But for that, the Commission will need to be a shrewd strategist, as Delhi is represented by “tough negotiators,” Šefčovič himself conceded in September.

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The steel sector raised the alarm on Wednesday over the fate of Europe’s steel jobs due to the dual impact of Chinese surplus entering the EU market and punitive US tariffs targeting European steel production.

“Europeans have to do something. They have to find strong answers against these overcapacities because if they don’t we will lose all our jobs and all our confidence,” Manuel Bloemers, from the powerful German union IG Metall, told Euronews.

“In Germany, the steel industry is heavily impacted from these imports. Thyssenkrupp has a lot of layoffs planned,” he added.

European Commission Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné convened an emergency summit in Brussels with both steel industry leaders and unions to explore urgent solutions.

The European steel industry currently supports around 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs across the EU, with Germany, Italy and France being the main producers in 2024, according to data by EUROFER, a lobby that represents Europe’s leading steel producers.

Thyssenkrupp Steel alone has announced plans to cut up to 11,000 jobs — around 40% of its German workforce — by 2030. Across Europe, thousands of jobs are also under threat at ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steel producer.

The past year was a challenging one for the sector, which saw a loss of 18,000 jobs in the EU, according to IndustriAll, the European steel union.

The situation may worsen with the new trade policy implemented by US President Donald Trump, industry representatives believe.

Since June, the US has imposed 50% tariffs on steel imports and an influx of heavily subsidised Chinese steel is diverted from the US to the EU market, lowering prices and revenues of the EU industry.

EUROFER has called for measures to slash foreign steel imports by half.

“The big risks we have as Europeans is that not only our exports into the US are being limited, but also the imports which are directed to the US usually are landing in an unprotected Europe,” Henrik Adam, president of EUROFER said.

After weeks of transatlantic trade tensions, the EU and the US reached a trade deal in July, which includes a 15% US tariff on all EU imports, while maintaining 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium — a bitter setback for the sector.

The Commission has told Euronews it will unveil new measures of protection for the market at next week’s European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg.

‘Time is running out’

“Time is running out,” warned German MEP Jens Geier (S&D), describing the outlook as “anxious” for workers across the continent.

“This is a worthwhile timely initiative by the commission to propose this defence instruments since we all are eager to see action from the Commission,” the MEP said.

To respond to the crisis, the steel industry is proposing a tariff rate quota system: imports above a certain threshold would be subject to a 50% tariff. The threshold remains to be determined.

The quota aligns with a proposal launched in July by France, backed by 10 other EU member states, which notes that the new system “must apply to all third countries without exception.”

Since 2019, the European Commission has implemented safeguard measures to limit imports of foreign steel. However, those are set to expire in 2026, and EUROFER argues the current rules have already proven insufficient, with foreign steel imports doubling over that period.

The OECD published data in April showing that global steel overcapacities stood at 600 million tonnes in 2023 and are expected to rise to 720 million tonnes next year.

To stand its ground, the EU hopes the US will agree to lower its tariffs.

Negotiations between Brussels and Washington are expected to resume once the Commission has finalised its approach to protecting the sector.

The White House will then assess what it is willing to grant the Europeans. But talks are expected to be difficult, as Trump is pushing to bring production capacity back to US soil.

“Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another big jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. Make America great again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in May.

Published on 25/09/2025 – 14:39 GMT+2
•Updated
15:05

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Negotiations over the sustainability chapter of the trade agreement with India are proving “challenging” the Commission’s chief negotiator Christophe Kiener told a meeting of the European Parliament’s trade committee on Thursday.

“We will need to adjust the approach we usually take on trade and sustainable development to make sure this is something India can live with,” said Kiener, adding: “Not having a chapter on trade and sustainability is not an option, but we must also make sure that this chapter cannot be an empty shell.”

The EU and India aim to conclude negotiations on a trade agreement by the end of the year. On 12 September, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen travelled to New Delhi for a new round of talks. However, no breakthrough was achieved.

One of the main sticking points is the dispute settlement mechanism the EU seeks to include in the deal to ensure India complies with environmental standards.

“The notion that there would be a dispute settlement, let alone sanctions applying to those commitments, the idea that the commitments would be legally binding, that civil society would be involved in the management of the agreement from that perspective, but also that those commitments would apply at the sub-federal level — these are elements that are very difficult for India,” Kiener told MEPs.

India ‘not like New Zealand’

Since its last mandate, the Commission pushes for inclusion of environmental provisions in its trade agreements, including mechanisms to oversee their implementation and enforce compliance.

This same chapter proved contentious during the EU’s talks with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay — until a deal was finally reached in December 2024.

The Mercosur agreement includes a dispute settlement mechanism involving an external review by independent experts and participation from civil society. It also identifies adherence to the Paris Agreement — the legally binding international climate treaty adopted in 2015 — as an “essential element” of the deal. This means the agreement can be suspended if one party seriously breaches or withdraws from the climate accord.

“We should not fall into the delusion that India is a country like New Zealand,” Kiener said, referring to the EU-New Zealand deal that entered into force in May 2024 and is considered a benchmark for integrating green standards into trade agreements.

EU green legislation, in particular the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) adopted in 2023, has raised concerns among Indian negotiators, Kiener told MEPs. CBAM introduces a levy on imports into the EU of certain carbon-intensive goods, a measure India perceives as potentially protectionist.

Published on 22/09/2025 – 16:37 GMT+2
•Updated
16:48

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EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič landed in Indonesia on Monday with the hope of closing a trade deal with Jakarta.

“The intention certainly is to finalise political negotiations for an EU-Indonesia trade agreement,” Commission deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill said.

Last July, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached a political agreement with her Indonesian counterpart President Prabowo Subianto, confident of concluding the negotiation in September this year.

By closing such a deal, the EU would secure access to a new market of around 280 million people.

Bilateral trade in goods between EU and Indonesia reached €27.3 billion in 2024, with EU exports worth €9.7 billion and EU imports worth €17.5 billion. The bloc would also strengthen its position in the region, since Indonesia was the EU’s fifth-biggest ASEAN trading partner in 2024.

India considered a ‘tough’ negotiator 

Increasing trade access to new markets has become EU’s top priority following the decision of its historic trade partner the US to impose tariffs on EU imports.

Under a trade agreement reached in July by the Commission and the US administration, 15% tariffs apply to most EU goods, while 50% tariffs continue to apply to imports of EU steel and aluminium.

The EU has since stepped up efforts to strengthen economic ties with the rest of the world.

It reached a political deal with the Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – in December, which if approved by EU member states and MEPs would create a free trade area covering 780 million people.

The Commission is also aiming to finalise a landmark agreement with India this year. The talks have accelerated at the beginning of September with the Agriculture file reaching the negotiation table. But as Šefčovič noted on 12 September, New Delhi is a “tough” negotiator, and a swift outcome is not guaranteed.

Published on 15/09/2025 – 15:34 GMT+2
•Updated
15:53

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A French liberal MEP has gathered signatures from 20 other lawmakers for a letter seen by Euronews calling on the European Commission to review its commitment made under the EU-US trade agreement to purchase US energy.

In the document— soon to be sent to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, and Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen—the MEPs led by Christophe Grudler of Renew call on the EU executive to reconsider its pledge to buy $750 billion worth of US energy products over the next three years.

These products include liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil, nuclear fuels, and small modular reactors (SMRs). The signatories argue the deal will undermine the EU’s climate goals, industrial competitiveness, and strategic sovereignty.

“Increasing LNG imports from US shale gas directly undermines our climate agenda and our methane emissions regulation,” the letter says, adding: “LNG is highly polluting when liquefied, shipped across the Atlantic and regasified. Such dependence is a climate time-bomb.”

The initiative was launched by Christophe Grudler, a French MEP from the liberal Renew group.

The letter also warns that beyond energy concerns, the deal risks exposing the EU to “political blackmail”, the US demanding changes to EU climate policies, including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, under which the bloc will apply levies on the carbon footprint of foreign imports from 1 January 2026.

The energy purchase commitment forms part of the EU-US agreement reached over the summer.

Some MEPs view the arrangement as deeply unbalanced, given that the US continues to impose 15% tariffs on EU goods, while the EU has agreed to make major investments in the US, including in the energy and defence sectors.

‘Economic imbalance’

In their letter to the Commission, MEPs also slam what they describe as the “economic imbalance” created by the pledge to purchase $250 billion’s worth of energy over three years. 

The letter describes this figure as “astronomical” adding: “To put this in perspective, the entire Competitiveness Fund proposed in the MFF amounts to €362 billion over seven years. How can we ask European companies to massively buy from the US while urging them to strengthen our competitiveness at home?”

The inclusion of US small modular reactors in the deal has also raised concerns among MEPs.

“At a time when the EU is building its own SMR supply chain, opening the door to US competitors is total nonsense.”

They further stress that commercial decisions “should remain the prerogative of companies, not be preempted by political pledges.”

Published on
12/09/2025 – 11:22 GMT+2

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The European Commission on Friday accepted the concessions proposed by Microsoft concerning its Teams platform Teams to resolve an antitrust case it has been entangled in since July 2023.

To allay charges of abuse of dominance, Microsoft has proposed to offer customers its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 applications without Teams at a lower price than the suites including Teams and committed not to offering discount rates on Teams higher than those offered on suites without Teams.

It also offered interoperability to competitors with certain Microsoft products and proposed to allow customers to extract their Teams messaging data for use in competing solutions.

The case was opened in July 2023 following complaints from competing office platform Slack and in 2024 from Alfaview, accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant position by bundling Teams with its Office and Microsoft 365 suites.

In June 2024, the Commission made a preliminary finding that the US tech giant was abusing its dominant position in the professional software market.

A year later, the Commission launched a market test on commitments offered by Microsoft which lead Slack and Alfaview to withdraw their complaints.

“Organisations big and small across Europe and around the world rely heavily on videoconferencing, chat and collaboration tools, especially since the coronavirus pandemic,” EU competition commissioner Teresa Ribera said in a statement, adding that the decision “opens up competition in this crucial market, and ensures that businesses can freely choose the communication and collaboration product that best suits their needs.”

The Commission’s decision makes Microsoft’s commitments binding for seven years and for 10 years regarding interoperability and data portability.

“We turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully,” Nanna-Louise Linde, Vice President of Microsoft’s European Government Affairs, said in a statement.

If the company fails to meet its commitments, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 10% of its global annual revenue.

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The EU Commission made its opening move in implementing the trade agreement reached on August 21 with the United States, but the legislative proposal for tariff reductions on a wide range of US industrial and agricultural products will face a tricky path through the European Parliament which will start considering the measure next week.

This legislative move should offer immediate relief to the EU automotive sector, as the US committed to retroactively lower its 27.5% tariffs on EU cars to 15% from 1 August, once the Commission proposed the legislation. 

Among the concessions granted to the US, the Commission’s proposal provides for reducing tariffs to 0% on the vast majority of US industrial products – ranging from machinery to pharmaceutical products, some chemicals, plastics and fertilizers – for which the EU aims to break its dependence on Russia. The proposal also targets some agri-products, such as fruits, juices and certain seeds.

“This is not costly for us,” a senior EU official said, pointing out that existing tariffs levied by the bloc on these products are very low.

The Commission has also declared privileged access to its market for certain agricultural products, whose tariffs will be reduced — such as certain vegetables, fruits and grape juices.

Tariff-rate quotas are also planned for 20 product groups, including pork (25,000 tonnes), dairy products (10,000 tonnes), cheese (10,000 tonnes), and soybeans (400,000 tonnes), which will benefit from 0% tariffs below the set thresholds.

Despite a trade agreement widely seen as heavily tilted in favour of the US — with the EU facing 15% tariffs under the deal — Brussels foresees the possibility of suspending these tariff advantages on US products if the US fails to implement the 21 August agreement, or if a sudden surge in US imports on the European market poses serious risks to EU industry.

The legislative proposal needs the buy-in of the European co-legislator, the European Parliament and the EU Council, which represents the member states.

MEPs responsible for monitoring trade issues will meet for what promises to be a heated session on 3 September, with some having criticised the deal as unbalanced. Sabine Weyand, Director-General of DG Trade and one of the chief negotiators, will attend to answer their questions.

“Politically, some MEPs saw the conclusion of the agreement as a humiliation and a surrender,” French liberal MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne told Euronews, adding: “Especially since we were promised predictability — yet Trump is already threatening tariffs on countries implementing digital legislation. The Commission is clearly uncomfortable.”

On top of the proposal on tariffs reduction, the MEPs are waiting for a second legislative proposal on the whole deal.

“We need to understand the agreement much better before we can be decisive and say yes or no,” Swedish MEP Jörgen Warborn (EPP) told Euronews, “I’m myself concerned because I have not yet understood whether the deal was compatible with WTO rules.”

According to WTO rules, any country that grants a preferential tariff to one country must extend those terms to others.

“There is a lot of turbulence when it comes to trade at these times. We need a rule-based space and not that the EU is part of breaking WTO rules,” Warborn added.

Within the S&D group, some are betting on the continuation of the negotiations to improve the deal.

“The deal is quite unbalanced and we need to see real effort from the EU Commission to obtain more exemptions and a clear path for an agreement on steel and aluminium,” a lawmaker from S&D said, adding: “Otherwise we should go back to the possible countermeasures.”

The deal published on August 21 does not address the aluminium and steel sectors, which remain subject to tariffs of up to 50%.

Published on
28/08/2025 – 7:45 GMT+2

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The EU should speed negotiation of a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system with the US to avoid existing exorbitant tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminium, the director general of the European Steel Association, EUROFER, has told Euronews adding that such a deal could also help with cooperation on Chinese overcapacities in the sector.

Such TRQ systems enable specific quantities of steel and aluminium to be imported at a lower or zero tariff rate, with any additional amount subject to a much higher tariff rate.

“Tariff-rate quotas are the only opening we have with the US,” Axel Eggert told Euronews, adding: “They are not perfect, but at least we still can export to the US, whereas now it’s completely different.”

The tariff-rate quota system for steel and aluminium was introduced under the Biden administration to replace the 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminium imposed by the first Trump administration. It allowed up to 3.3 million tons of EU steel and 384,000 tons of aluminium into the US tariff-free, with the tariffs applying to any further amounts. However, since his return to office, US President Donald Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium, which were raised to 50% in June and extended on 19 August to some 400 steel derivatives.

After weeks of tariff disputes targeting all EU industrial products—not just steel and aluminium—the US and the EU reached an agreement setting tariffs on EU goods at 15%, with the notable exception of steel and aluminium.

However, the joint statement does state that the parties “intend to consider the possibility to cooperate on ring-fencing their respective domestic markets from overcapacity, while ensuring secure supply chains between each other, including through tariff-rate quota solutions.”

“We would have hoped that there was a clear obligation for the US to keep the tariff-rate quota which we had before,” Eggert said. “That was our objective and that was also the Commission’s objective, but the Commission simply didn’t get it.”

EUROFER’s boss also said that the US and EU can make common cause in fighting Chinese overcapacities in the steel sector.

According to OECD figures, there was a global overcapacity of steel of 600 million tons last year, and by next year there should be overcapacities of 720 million tonnes.

“China is subsidising its steel industry,” Eggert said, pointing out that the Asian giant has an excess capacity of more than 500 million tons.

When Trump imposed 25% tariffs on global steel and aluminium in March, it was swallowed by cheap Chinese products, he added, which explains why the US tariffs were then raised to 50%.

The issue of overcapacity was an integral part of the negotiations in recent months between the US and the EU, with the Commission pushing for cooperation between the two sides.

“If you have the two biggest markets in the world, the US and the EU, then you have such market power that you don’t let in any steam from companies which produce overcapacity,” Eggert predicts. “Then of course they have to reduce the overcapacities.”

In 2021, the Biden administration and the EU Commission started negotiating an agreement — the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GASSA) — to fight overcapacities and promote lower-carbon production in the steel and aluminium sectors. But the negotiation was interrupted after Trump returned to power.

“There is a possibility [to bring it back], because the US administration has worked this out in great detail already,” Eggert said, pointing out that one sticking point which remained was the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which imposes a fee on some polluting goods imported into the EU, which the US opposes.

Published on
05/08/2025 – 17:10 GMT+2

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The European Commission said on Tuesday it was surprised by comments German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil in which he highlighted the EU’s weakness in the ongoing tariff talks, despite Germany having been fully briefed ahead of the agreement reached on July 27 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump.

“It is most surprising to us,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said, adding: “Nothing has happened here in terms of the Commission’s approach, negotiation or outcome achieved without the clear signal received from our member states.”

Klingbeil said on Monday, ahead of his meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant in Washington DC, that EU representatives “have shown weakness” during trade negotiations with the US.

“Overall, as Europeans, we must become stronger,” Klingbeil insisted, “then we can also stand up to the US with more self-confidence. Not against the US, but in dialogue with the US.”

Germany “had been fully briefed on the details of the agreement at a political level”, Commission Deputy Spokesperson Arianna Podestà added on Tuesday.

Since the announcement of the EU-US tariff agreement on July 27, the Commission has maintained that the deal represents the least bad option, allowing the EU to avoid a further escalation in the transatlantic trade dispute.

However, the details of the agreement are still under negotiation, just days after a US Executive Order set tariffs at 15%. Germany, in particular, continues to see its automotive industry heavily impacted by 25% US tariffs — contrary to the political deal, which aimed to reduce them to 15%.

Negotiations also continue on which products may be eligible for exemptions.

“We fight for every product and every industry,” a senior EU official said, adding: “We’re really trying to get as many products into the list of exemptions.”

A joint EU-US statement is expected to be released soon, aiming to reinforce the political commitments made on both sides of the Atlantic.

Under the current framework, the US has agreed to apply a 15% tariff on EU goods, while the EU has committed to purchasing US energy and investing in the United States.

Published on
04/08/2025 – 18:23 GMT+2

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The European Commission will suspend on Tuesday a package of trade countermeasures targeting €93 billions’ worth of American goods which was scheduled to take effect on 7 August, as it continues to negotiate a joint statement formalising the agreement struck by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump on 27 July.

“The EU continues to work with the US to finalise a joint statement, as agreed on 27 July,” EU spokesperson Olof Gill said, adding: “With these objectives in mind, the Commission will take the necessary steps to suspend by six months the EU’s countermeasures against the US, which were due to enter into force on 7 August.”

In line with the agreement reached, the US reduced its tariff rate to 15% last Thursday.

Gill said the step gained the EU immediate tariff relief, “a first important foundation is laid for restoring clarity to EU companies exporting to the US”.

The trade dispute is not over

However the trade dispute between the EU and the US is not over, as both sides still need to negotiate certain points of the agreement that have led to differing interpretations.

 Furthermore, the US Executive Order of July 31 does not provide relief to the EU automotive industry as expected (it remains subject to 25% tariffs), nor does it exempt strategic sectors such as aircraft.

As negotiations continue, the Commission should postpone through urgency procedure the retaliation package it adopted against the US tariffs.

It consists in two lists of products that were worth respectively €21 billion and €72 billion and were merged on 24 July after EU member states adopted them, targeting US products such as soyabean, cars, aircraft and Bourbon Whiskey.

Published on
01/08/2025 – 15:53 GMT+2

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US President Donald Trump doesn’t appear willing to ease the pressure on German carmakers. The US executive order on reciprocal tariffs published just before 1 August stopped short of applying the 15% tariffs agreed by Trump and Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to US imports of EU vehicles.

Since 2 April, EU cars have been hit with 25% US tariffs under the section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act, which allows the US president to restrict imports of goods threatening US national security.

The deal concluded last Sunday with President Ursula von der Leyen was meant to apply the 15% tariffs to EU cars, and to exempt certain strategic products such as aircraft from tariffs, but neither proviso appears in the executive order.

The executive order imposes a blanket 15% tariff on EU goods to apply from 8 August. Goods already in transit before that date will enjoy the previous tariff rate of 10% until 5 October, the US order says. Any attempt to circumvent these tariffs will be penalized with a 40% duty on the goods concerned, the order adds.

Despite the apparent omissions from the order, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič welcomed “the first results of the EU–US deal”.

“This reinforces stability for businesses as well as trust in the transatlantic economy,” he said on X, adding: “EU exporters now benefit from a more competitive position.”

Šefčovič also said, however, that “the work continues”, referring to ongoing negotiations on a joint statement intended to formalise the political trade agreement reached on July 27.

Diverging narratives

The Commission and the US administration are struggling to agree on a joint text, and up to now have pushed diverging narratives on the deal.

Uncertainty remains over the fate of steel and aluminium, currently hit by 50% US tariffs, which, according to the Commission, are expected to soon be subject to lower tariff-rate quotas. Negotiations are also ongoing over a series of exemptions, as pressure mounts from the EU wine and spirits industry.

In a factsheet published on Monday, the US also claimed that the EU committed not to apply telecommunications network usage fees in an upcoming Digital Network Act, which is currently being disputed between EU telecom companies and US tech giants in Brussels.

On Thursday the Commission noted that a white paper on digital networks published in February 2024 assessed that imposing a network fee was “not a viable solution”. “Such an exemption would not apply to US company only,” a Commission spokesperson said.

Published on
31/07/2025 – 7:00 GMT+2

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A joint statement is set to follow the framework deal agreed by US President Donald Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday in Scotland.

The statement should in theory come before 1 August, the date after which Trump had threatened to apply 30% blanket tariffs on EU imports if no trade deal was reached, though there is no clarity on when it will arrive.

With both sides still wrangling over the details, one thing is clear: it will not be legally binding. “That joint statement itself is not a legally binding document but it’s rather a roadmap,” EU Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Tuesday, describing the statement as “a series of political commitments”.

That might work in the EU’s favour, given the massive commitments it has made in terms of purchases and investments: €750 billion in US energy, €600 billion in investments and purchases of weapons. The EU lacks legal capacity to make such commitments anyway and they will broadly rest on the private sector.

The trade deal agreed between the US and Indonesia last week is cited as an example of how the statement might look. That agreement contains figures on tariffs applied by both signatories and purchase commitments, but it also includes a lengthy section detailing Indonesia’s commitments to ease non-tariff barriers.

Tariffs and non-tariff barriers

The EU/US joint statement might be expected to explicitly set out that 15% tariffs will apply to EU imports, as was agreed on 27 July by Trump and von der Leyen, but there is still no clarity on exemptions, which are still under negotiation, with the EU for example hoping to secure zero tariff rating on wines and spirits.

Regarding US imports to the EU, there should be a list of US products enjoying 0% EU tariffs. “We will publish that list in the context of the finalisation of the joint statement so that this is clear where exactly we are going,” an EU official said.

That will include non-sensitive agricultural products and fisheries products: nuts, processed fish, some dairy products and pet food, according to the official.

Some industrial products should also be covered as well as certain chemicals linked to fertilisers, “where we see the US as an alternative source of supply to Russia”, the EU official said.

It remains to be seen how the EU will navigate the issue of non-tariff barriers. The EU has remained adamant that there will be no question of revisiting digital or phytosanitary regulations — but the US continues to sledge those rules as discriminatory.

An EU official said the US administration will issue executive orders for a number of countries clarifying new tariffs levels, and there may be an order for the EU.

Published on
30/07/2025 – 18:23 GMT+2

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French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the EU Commission to rebalance EU’s trade relationship with the US, particularly in the services sector, just days after a deal was reached between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump.

“To be free, one must be feared. We haven’t been feared enough,” Macron said during a meeting of the French council of ministers, French media reported, calling for “relentless efforts to rebalance trade, particularly in the services sector.”

“This is not the end of the story, and we will not stop here,” the French president added, as the EU Commission is still negotiating exemptions to the 15% US tariffs on EU imports agreed on 27 July.

Since the beginning of the tariff war with the US, France has consistently favoured a hardline approach, brandishing the threat of the anti-coercion instrument — an EU tool that allows foreign companies to be denied access to public procurement, licenses, or intellectual property rights.

The tool would enable the EU to target US services, where the bloc runs a trade deficit with the US, unlike in goods.

Countermeasures

The EU has also adopted a package of countermeasures worth €95 billion targeting US products, but these were suspended until 4 August. The Commission is now awaiting a US executive order confirming that a 15% blanket tariff will apply to imports of EU goods as of 1 August.

“Of course the measures are there,” an EU official said, adding: “They have been approved by the member states. So if there was a need, we could always bring them back on Tuesday [4 August]. But that is not the assumption from which we start this next phase in transatlantic relations.”

The French President acknowledged that negotiations with the US had been difficult, and welcomed exemptions secured for the aerospace sector, considered strategic for Paris. France also hopes that the Commission will manage to negotiate an exemption for wine and spirits, which represent France’s leading export market to the US.

“We are continuing to negotiate with the Americans so that, if possible, spirits, perhaps wine, and other sectors can be exempted. It’s a work in progress,” French Economy Minister Éric Lombard told French radio on Wednesday.

On top of aircraft, Von der Leyen on Sunday announced that zero-for-zero tariffs will apply to certain chemicals, generic drugs, semiconductor-making equipment, some agricultural products (but with the exclusion of all sensitive products like beef, rice, ethanol, sugar or poultry), some natural resources and critical raw materials.

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The US is pitching the creation of a new advisory body for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) involving those companies subject to enforcement of the regulation a voice, in the context of negotiations over an EU-US trade deal, according to three sources familiar with the matter. 

The EU will never accept the idea however according to two of the sources.

On Saturday, Trump posted a new set of letters to his social media platform Truth Social, declaring 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico starting 1 August, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen quickly responded by noting the bloc’s “commitment to dialogue, stability, and a constructive transatlantic partnership.”

On Sunday, she emphasised that reaching a negotiated solution remains the priority, but that the EU is ready to respond with countermeasures.

The DMA regulates the largest online platforms with a view to protecting the rights of consumers and curbing any abusive behaviour by dominant tech players. 

Under the rules, companies face fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover for non-compliance. 

Peter Navarro, a senior Trump advisor, has openly accused the bloc of waging “lawfare” against US Big Tech through the DMA and its sister Digital Services Act (DSA) regulation. In response, the EU has said it will “not make any concessions on its digital and technology rules” as part of any trade negotiations with the US. 

The DMA already has an advisory board, which plays a consultative and strategic role in its implementation, supporting the Commission in oversight and enforcement.

The board is made up of independent experts and representatives from relevant national authorities and regulatory bodies, however, and is not supposed to be a body of representatives drawn from the enforced entities.

The sources did not expand on what form the advisory body touted by the US would take, beyond giving influence over the enforcement methods.

“The fact that the US proposed setting up an advisory board for the DMA, where those who might be affected would actually sit, that certainly won’t happen, and there will be no exceptions for US companies under the DMA,” one source said.

The Commission has repeatedly said that DMA probes are conducted strictly according to the regulation, which does not discriminate against companies on the basis of country of origin. But the fact that most of those under its scope are US tech giants means that the decisions are now seen through the lens of the brewing trade war.

On both sides of the Atlantic, EU digital legislation has become a red line in the negotiations over tariffs: the US considers the DMA and DSA – which covers illegal content online – as non-tariff barriers to their trade with the EU, while the EU refuses to amend these regulations, which were adopted in 2022. 

Sovereignty

Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera told Euronews on 27 June that it is impossible to for the EU to backtrack on its digital rules. 

“We are going to defend our sovereignty. We will defend the way we implement our rules, we will defend a well functioning market and we will not allow anyone to tell us what to do,” she said.

Without changing the rules, the Commission could nonetheless finesse implementation of the DMA, according to Christophe Carugati, a Brussels-based tech consultant. Investigations and fines could become the exception in the DMA enforcement. 

“To calm the US, the idea could be to settle disputes formally or informally through dialogue. That will implicitly ‘pause’ the investigations,” he told Euronews.

Non-compliance investigations launched over the past year under the DMA have resulted in relatively low fines compared to those imposed on Big Tech under the Commission’s previous mandate. Apple has received a €500 million penalty and Meta was fined €200 million, the former for preventing developers from steering consumers to alternative offers, the latter for its “Pay or Consent” advertising model. 

In April, EU officials said that the lower fines reflected the short duration of the violations since the DMA implementation started in 2023 but also the Commission’s current focus on achieving compliance rather than punishing breaches. 

Simplification

US tech giants could also seek to benefit from the Commission’s simplification agenda to secure some relief from regulatory enforcement. In May, Amazon, IBM, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI called on the Commission to keep its upcoming Code of Practice on General-Purpose AI (GPAI) “as simple as possible”, as reported.

EU Tech Commissioner Henna Virkkunen is currently carrying out a digital fitness check, which will result in an “omnibus” simplification package to be presented in December. 

She aims to identify reporting obligations in existing digital legislation that can be cut to ease pressure on enterprises, particularly SMEs.

The question remains whether that simplification package will also cover the DMA, DSA and the AI Act.

Virkkunen has always said that despite facing criticism from former Trump advisor and X-owner Elon Musk, the laws are fair and equitable.

 “Our rules are very fair, because they are the same rules for everybody who is operating and doing business in the European Union. So, we have the same rules for European companies, American companies, and Chinese companies,” Virkkunen told Euronews in April.

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EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič presented EU trade ministers gathered in Brussels for an extraordinary meeting on Monday a list of €72 billion worth of US products to be included in a retaliatory tariff drive, as US pressure ramped up over the weekend with the threat of 30% tariffs on EU imports starting on 1 August.

“We must be prepared for all outcomes, including if necessary, well-considered proportionate measures to restore balance in our transatlantic relationship,” Šefčovič said, adding: “Today the Commission is sharing with the member states the proposal for the second list of goods, accounting of some €72 billion worth of US Imports. They will now have a chance to discuss it.”

The list proposed by the Commission, which has been reduced from €72 billion to €95 billion after consultation of EU industries and member states, still has to be adopted formally by the member states. It targets a wide range of products including US aeroplanes and Bourbon whiskey.

On 12 July, after weeks of negotiations, US President Donald Trump published on Truth Social a letter sent to the Commission threatening to impose 30% tariffs on EU imports if no deal is reached by 1 August.

Last week, negotiations appeared to have entered the final stretch, with the EU having reluctantly agreed to a baseline tariff of 10% on its imports. Sector-specific exemptions were still needing to be negotiated, the EU having managed to secure 0% on aircraft and spirits and some US tariffs just above 10% on agri-products.

“We were very very close to an agreement in principle,” Danish foreign affairs minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen regretted.

The US currently imposes 50% on EU steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and 10% on all EU imports.

According to an EU diplomat, EU retaliation could also include export controls on aluminium scrap, which the US needs.

But while the EU is flexing its muscles, it continues to prioritise negotiation.

“We remain convinced that our transatlantic relationship deserves a negotiated solution, one that leads to renewed stability and cooperation,” Maroš Šefčovič said before announcing he had a call planned with his US counterparts on Monday late afternoon.

On 13 July, the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a delay in the implementation of an initial retaliatory measure targeting €21 billion worth of American products, which had been suspended until 15 July.

According to the same EU diplomat, a meeting of EU ambassadors had originally decided to postpone it until the end of the year, but Trump’s new announcements have made these countermeasures more urgent. They have therefore been postponed until 1 August.

Anti-coercion instrument

Behind the show of unity displayed on Monday by member states, diplomats are however well aware that complications will arise once a deal with the US is on the table.

“Let’s be realistic we will all have different interpretations,” an official from a member states told Euronews, admitting that once a deal is reached some countries will push for strong retaliation while others will want to avoid escalation, depending on which of their strategic sectors is most hit by the US.

France continues to advocate a hard line toward the US, eager to put all the tools at the EU’s disposal on the table, including the use of the anti-coercion instrument — the “nuclear option” of EU trade defence, adopted in 2023.

“This pressure, deliberately applied by the US president in recent days and weeks, is straining our negotiating capacity and must lead us to show that Europe is a power,” French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said on arrival at the Council, adding: “Europe is a power when it knows how to demonstrate its ability to respond.”

“The US has escalation dominance,” a second EU diplomat told Euronews.

On Sunday Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen ruled out use of the anti-coercion instrument for the time being.

“The anti-coercion is created for extraordinary situations,” she said, adding: “We are not there yet.”

The tool would allow the EU to withdraw licences and intellectual property rights from foreign companies including US tech giants.

Published on 08/07/2025 – 13:04 GMT+2•Updated
13:13

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The EU and the US are preparing for a trade deal involving the US imposing a baseline 10% tariff on EU goods, according to several sources briefed by EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

A preliminary agreement is expected to be concluded by Wednesday, with legal implementation by 1 August — the new deadline set by US President Donald Trump before additional tariffs come into effect if no deal is signed, sources said.

“The US will not drop the baseline tariffs, because they’re a revenue source,” the Parliament’s trade committee head MEP Bernd Lange (Germany/S&D) told reporters on Tuesday.

He said that aircraft and spirits would be exempted from the baseline 10% tariffs. Whether wines are included remains unclear.

The US currently apply 25% tariffs on EU cars, 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium and 10% tariffs on all other EU imports.

Lange said negotiations are ongoing on attempts to remove tariffs on cars, with much at stake for the German automotive industry, which is highly exposed to trade with the US.

“There are already estimates that up to 50,000 jobs could be at risk,” Lange added.

Germany and Italy — the largest EU exporters of goods to the US along with Ireland — remain concerned by US proposals not to exempt key sectors such as cars, steel and aluminium or pharmaceuticals, according to an EU diplomat.

EU retaliatory measures remain on the table but have not yet been finalised by the Commission. The EU must still decide when to use them.

“There is no immediate plan to do anything with the list,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Monday.

A first list of measures covering €21 billion worth of US products has been suspended until 14 July.

A second list, reduced following lobbying by industries and EU member states from €95 billion to €72 billion worth of US products, according to the French news agency AFP, has yet to be submitted for final approval by EU member states. 

Published on
05/07/2025 – 14:10 GMT+2

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China’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on European Cognac is “unfair” and “unjustified”, a European Commission spokesperson said on Friday, underscoring a downtick in relations ahead of an EU-China summit scheduled for the end of July.

“China’s measures are unfair, we believe they are unjustified, we believe they are inconsistent with the applicable international rule and are thus unfounded,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Friday.

The Asian giant has announced anti-dumping duties of up to 34,9% over EU brandy for a period of five years starting from 5 July 2025, sparing some of the largest EU Cognac producers which had made minimum price commitments, such as Remy Cointreau, Pernod Ricard and LVMH’s Hennessy.

The Chinese launched an investigation into brandy last year in retaliation for tariffs imposed by the EU on Chinese electric vehicles. It was followed by the announcement of several other investigations into EU pork and dairy products, which have not yet been closed.

Anti-dumping duties were also imposed in May on some EU industrial plastics.

Gill added that the duties on EU brandy were “part of a worrying pattern of China abusing trade defence instruments, starting and conducting investigations on the basis of questionable allegations and insufficient evidence, all this within a short period of time.”

This blow to EU brandy comes as some media report that China has cancelled the second day of the EU-China summit scheduled for 24 and 25 July.

The Commission’s chief spokesperson Paula Pinho refused to confirm the cancellation, arguing that the summit’s agenda “has not been agreed yet” by the EU and China.

Points of contention are increasing between the two, despite hopes for a diplomatic reset born of the jeopardy both sides face in the face of  an ongoing tariff dispute with the US.

The South China Morning Post reported on Friday that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas it did not want to see a Russian loss in Ukraine because it feared the US would then shift its whole focus to Beijing.