The deal was backed after months of delays caused by uncertainty over

European Parliament advances EU-US trade deal, but adds safeguards – snap analysis
The European parliament has to advance the EU-US trade deal but with conditions aimed at preventing Donald Trump’s administration from riding roughshod over Europe .

Lawmakers voted in favour of texts tabled by the head of the European parliament’s international trade committee Bernd Lange that would introduce safeguards to the EU-US trade deal signed last summer at Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland.

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Trump agreed last August that the EU would scrap tariffs on many US goods, while the US would impose a 15% rate on many European imports, maintaining 50% duties on steel and aluminium.

The European parliament, which needs to approve the lowering of EU tariffs, has twice paused the vote on its consent, following Trump’s threats to annex Greenland , then a US Supreme Court ruling, declaring the US president’s tariffs unlawful .

Introducing the vote on Thursday, Lange said the Turnberry deal was not a formal trade agreement:
“An agreement that we negotiate has commitments and safeguards and a dispute settlement mechanism … now all of that is not in the deal from Scotland.”
The parliament voted on Thursday that it will only accept zero tariffs on US goods, if hundreds of European goods made with steel and aluminium are excluded from the 50% US tariff on those metals.

European industry protested after the Trump administration, following the Turnberry deal, introduced 407 different product categories that would be subject to the higher 50% rate , from wind turbines to the furniture, fearing the possibility of an ever expanding list.

Further safeguards include scrapping the EU’s zero tariffs if Trump introduces new trade measures against the EU and a sunset clause to end the agreement by 31 March 2028.

Lange’s amendments were approved by 417 MEPs, with 154 against and 71 abstentions.

An amendment by the radical left to vote down the deal failed to win support.

Martin Schwirdan of Germany’s Die Linke, a co-leader of the left group, said “This is not a fair deal.

This is blackmailing.” Sophie Wilmès , a vice-chair of the European parliament’s US delegation, said:
“As the US administration lacks either the capacity or the willingness to guarantee even this minimum, it is up to us, Europeans, to put our own safeguards in place to protect ourselves from the chaos of US tariff policies, and even from certain threats.” But it is not clear that EU member states will accept this attempt to improve the Turnberry deal, in the wake of further threats from the Trump administration.

Trump’s ambassador to the EU, Andrew Pudzer, told the Financial Times that the EU must implement the deal without amendments or risk losing “favourable” access to liquified natural gas shipments from American exporters.