A senior EU trade official said the US has violated the terms of its trade agreement with the EU, and the EU is prepared to retaliate if necessary.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, said on Tuesday (February 24): "We want real stability and predictability. Unfortunately, the US government and president have indeed violated this agreement on multiple occasions."



After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs, he announced new tariffs, imposing a general 10% tariff on all imported goods. Trump said on Saturday that the rate would be raised to 15%, though the exact timing was unclear; the tariffs would take effect Tuesday morning.

European officials have expressed concern over the latest tariffs, suggesting they could threaten the trade agreement signed with the United States last summer.

The European Parliament announced on Monday that it has suspended its work on ratifying the US-EU trade agreement, while demanding that the White House clarify whether the agreement remains valid.

The agreement includes a base tariff of 15% on most EU goods entering the US, but also includes exemptions for certain sectors. Other products, such as steel and aluminum, and their derivatives, will face a higher tariff of 50%.

Lange stated that the EU is prepared to uphold the commitments outlined in the 2025 trade agreement, but the US has changed its stance on the agreement "several times," including Trump's January threat to impose higher tariffs on European countries that support Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland.

He stated, "We will abide by the agreement. An agreement is an agreement, there is no doubt about that. But on the US side, the agreement was violated just weeks after it was reached, with 400 products, the so-called derivatives, being increased from 15% to 50%, which has really hurt many European SMEs."

He said, "Then we had the exercises in Greenland, and now we have the 15+ tariffs, so this is a clear violation by the U.S. and multiple times, and it's uncertain." "We need certainty, and that's what I'm clearly asking of the U.S. government: let us be sure that the new U.S. tariffs won't cause us any more trouble over the next three years, and then we'll stick to the agreement."

The US has sent mixed messages regarding the validity of trade agreements with the EU and the UK under the new tariff regime. Last weekend, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appeared to suggest that the president's trade policy has not fundamentally changed and that these agreements remain valid.

However, European officials are eager to clarify the matter as soon as possible, and French officials appear to be pushing the EU to consider using its Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) as a retaliatory measure if necessary.