The European Union and Australia have concluded talks on a free trade deal that could boost export volumes by as much as one third, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in Canberra. Von der Leyen shook hands on the agreement with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Tuesday, on the second of her three-day visit to Australia — finally sealing the accord after a previous attempt collapsed amid acrimony in 2023.  The Commission president told the Australian parliament the trade deal was necessary to build resilience to economic shocks.  “None of us is immune to the shocks, both geopolitical and economic, that the war in Iran brings to our populations,” von der Leyen said. Von der Leyen told the special parliamentary sitting of MPs and senators — she was the first woman to address a joint sitting in Australian history — that the deal would send a message that “when it comes to trade, Europe is open for business.”  “We are rearming. We are decarbonizing. We are preparing. We are becoming an independent Europe. And this means a more outward Europe. And this is why I am here today. Because showing up matters,” she said.  With U.S. President Donald Trump slamming tariffs on allies globally, Brussels and Canberra rekindled their negotiations last year. EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who was in Canberra for the signing of the free-trade deal, stressed both countries’ commitment to a rules-based world order when he briefed journalists on Monday ahead of the final talks. “We are sending a strong signal that we prefer a low tariff — or in this case: no tariffs — and that we want to work on rules-based mechanisms,” Šefčovič said. Sensitive market access for Australian beef and sheep meat, plus sugar, rice and some dairy was the last point of discussion.  The two sides are believed to have agreed that Australia will be able to export between 30,000 and 35,000 tonnes of beef to Europe a year, up from the current 3,389 tons. Brussels had held firm to 30,000 metric tons during talks in recent weeks. In an earlier joint press conference, Albanese also suggested that Australia had extracted some concessions from the EU on the issue of geographic indicators, which could enable Australian producers to continue using names including feta, halloumi and Parmesan.  The issue was politically sensitive, with Australia’s European communities arguing they should be allowed to continue producing their food products under their original names.  “Whether it’s Greeks coming here and creating feta, or Italians coming and doing Parmesan [cheese], or people from Eastern Europe doing Kransky sausages … It’s a connection with Europe. It’s part of our strength,” Albanese said.   Australia will agree to protect the names of 165 European food products and 237 spirits. The two sides also agreed to modernize an existing wine agreement, which covers 50 new ones and includes — in a win for Brussels — prosecco as well.  Coming just two months after the EU signed a deal with the Latin-American Mercosur bloc — also a major beef producer — the Australian agreement is meant to deliver benefits for farmers, Šefčovič said.  “I believe that we are bringing very good news to our farmers,” he said, arguing that wine, sparkling wine, chocolate, sugar, confectionery, ice cream, some fruits and vegetables and many processed agricultural products will all “go down to zero from Day 1.” Cheeses, which are more sensitive for the Australians, will see tariffs phased out in three years. The trade chief also underlined EU agrifood exports to Australia already enjoy a surplus of €2.3 billion.  EU exports to Australia totalled €37 billion in goods and €28 billion in services in 2024, with the deal set to eliminate tariffs on almost all EU goods and many services. The agreement could boost that by one third in 10 years, the Commission estimates. A major win for the EU will be easier access to Australia’s natural resource wealth and incentives for European investments for Australian mining and refining. “Australia has almost all the critical minerals we need,” Šefčovič said. Speaking of the EU’s need for critical minerals, von der Leyen told lawmakers that a new partnership with Australia would be “crucial” to the EU, which ran the risk of becoming over-dependent on Chinese supplies. “That is precisely why we need each other,” she said.  Brussels also won a pledge from Australia to raise the threshold for its luxury car tax by almost 50 percent. Canberra currently charges a 33 percent levy on foreign-made cars above A$80,000 (or A$92,000 for a fuel-efficient one). Šefčovič said that will rise to A$120,000.  Koen Verhelst reported from Brussels; James Panichi reported from Melbourne.

BRUSSELS — America’s ambassador to the EU called on the European Parliament to back the trade deal struck with President Donald Trump, arguing it would unlock deeper transtlantic cooperation on energy, tech and AI. Speaking to POLITICO on Monday, Andrew Puzder cautioned that it would be a mistake to allow a further delay of the deal reached last July at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, but has still to be implemented on by the EU side. “All of the signals are good, but you never know. We’re hopeful, but we want to be careful and make sure that we don’t take anything for granted,” Puzder said in an interview at the U.S. mission in Brussels.  “It’s in the best interest of the European Union and the United States that it passes,” he added. “Some people might think that politically, it might give them an advantage to vote against. I hope that’s not the case. But economically, it’d be malpractice not to vote for this in the EU.” Puzder highlighted the importance of the EU’s commitment to spend $750 billion on U.S. energy under the Turnberry deal.  “Europe’s going to need that energy,” he said. “So we need to cut back on the regulatory restrictions to our shipping them the energy and also the regulatory restrictions that make that energy more expensive once it gets here.” IT’S BEEN LONG ENOUGH Puzder, a former fast food executive nominated by Trump, started the role last September and made an early impression in Brussels with his plain speaking. He told POLITICO in December that the EU should stop trying to be the world’s regulator and get on instead with being one of its innovators.  His latest remarks came amid mounting U.S. frustration over the EU’s slow pace in keeping its side of the bargain, under which it would scrap import duties on U.S. industrial goods. The enabling legislation is now up for a plenary vote in the European Parliament on Thursday. If it passes, talks between EU lawmakers, governments and the Commission would then begin on finally implementing the tariff changes. “We’re anxious to get this through the process. We understood they had to go through a process, but it’s been long enough. And hopefully we’ll get through it on Thursday and we can both move on to more economically beneficial endeavors,” Puzder stressed.  Trade lawmakers backed amendments at the committee stage to strengthen the EU’s protections in case Washington doesn’t respect its side of the deal.  They for instance introduced a suspension clause if Trump threatens the EU’s territorial sovereignty, as he did earlier this year when he pushed to annex Greenland. MEPs also added another provision that foresees that the deal would expire in March 2028.  Puzder declined to speculate on whether the deal could unravel altogether if the U.S. president were to launch any renewed threats.  “I hate to prejudge where this is going to go,” he said. “What everybody’s been saying on both sides is a deal is a deal. We had a deal; hopefully we still have a deal.” The ambassador stressed there had been a “very good two-way communication” between Trump’s team of Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the European Commission, as well as with Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament’s Trade Committee.   “I’ve also had a number of meetings with Bernd Lange and members of parliament on these issues. So the communication has been very good and very open throughout this process,” Puzder said.

BRUSSELS — The Trump administration has reassured the EU’s top trade lawmaker that it plans to shorten a list of items containing steel that are subject to high U.S. tariffs, in a concession that could finally persuade the European Parliament to back last year’s transatlantic trade deal.  The offer came in a call between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee. It has helped win the support of Lange’s fellow socialists, enabling a key committee vote to go ahead on Thursday. But the fix is not yet fully in, with caucus leaders still to debate exactly when to schedule a final plenary vote on the accord reached at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf club in Scotland last July. One sticking point has been the subsequent addition by Washington of hundreds of items that contain steel — from cranes to furniture — to a list of products subject to a 50 percent U.S. tariff. That, in the view of the Europeans, violates the spirit of the Turnberry accord.  In their call last Saturday, Greer assured Lange that many of these items would go, said the German MEP, who is also steering the enabling legislation on the deal.  “Not everything, but a lot of them,” Lange told POLITICO’s Morning Trade newsletter, saying that there was “some movement” on that front. The enabling legislation, which would remove tariffs on U.S. industrial goods, has been stalled for weeks in the EU chamber, as lawmakers balked at approving a deal following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to strike down President Donald Trump’s original tariffs. The Turnberry deal had set an “all-inclusive” tariff of 15 percent on most goods. Trump quickly replaced that with a temporary 10 percent global duty. With Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, cut off all trade with Spain, and his military campaign against Iran further undermining any vestigial confidence on the part of EU lawmakers that he will abide by his commitments, the path to final approval of the Turnberry accord is both rocky and narrow. NOT THE END OF THE ROAD  The next hurdle is holding a final plenary vote on the Turnberry deal, with political groups in the European Parliament still divided.  Lange’s Socialists & Democrats, the Left, Greens and Renew are in favor of scheduling it in April, arguing they still require clarity from Washington. The center-right, pro-business European People’s Party (EPP) is pushing to hold it next week, as currently scheduled.  A decision is expected this week. Political group chairs representing a majority of MEPs would be needed to change the plenary agenda. “We need to finish this in March because then we would have much more certainty for everything. We have promises from the White House on steel and aluminum derivatives,” said Željana Zovko, the EPP top negotiator on the file. Lange is meanwhile due to fly — after the Trade Committee vote on Thursday — to Washington and is expected to meet with Greer.  Only after the text is approved by the plenary can the European Parliament enter negotiations with EU capitals and the European Commission on a compromise to finally implement the deal. BEYOND EU  People close to the White House say officials have spent weeks exploring ways to streamline how the U.S. steel tariffs apply to downstream products that hit the EU and other trading partners, following industry pushback after the list of steel and aluminum derivatives expanded to cover hundreds of items last year.  The exchange between Greer and Lange marks the clearest signal yet that the administration may adjust its approach to derivatives tariffs — changes that could extend well beyond the EU.  But the Trump administration has not publicly confirmed any changes, or clarified what that plan would entail.  “We are always examining ways to ensure our sectoral tariffs are most effectively safeguarding our country’s national and economic security, but unless announced by the Administration, discussion about tariff or derivative adjustments is baseless speculation,” said a White House official.  Camille Gijs reported from Brussels and Ari Hawkins reported from Washington. Max Griera contributed to this report. 

BRUSSELS — The European Union and Australia are expected to conclude talks on a long-awaited trade deal early next week, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday announcing she would visit from March 23-25.  Von der Leyen will meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra, according to a Commission statement. Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is also expected to join the trip, although planning might yet change due to flight disruptions in the Middle East. Albanese confirmed the visit, saying in a statement that he would meet both von der Leyen and Šefčovič on March 24. Brussels and Canberra relaunched trade negotiations after Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year. They had collapsed amid acrimony at the end of 2023 amid disagreements over quotas on beef and lamb. The breakthrough comes as the EU looks to get closer to the Pacific-centered CPTPP trade bloc through its deepening bonds with Australia. In a letter to EU leaders shared Monday, von der Leyen said the EU and Australia were in “the final stretch towards concluding” their trade agreement.  “In addition to removing trade barriers, it will also facilitate access to critical raw materials — such as lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, and hydrogen — and strengthen Europe’s presence in one of the world’s most dynamic economic regions,” she wrote, as part of a list on the Commission’s efforts to boost competitiveness. Negotiators had grappled in the home stretch to close the gap on access for Australian beef and lamb to the European market; EU trade protections on specialty foods; critical minerals; and an Australian tax on luxury cars. Canberra and Brussels are also looking to seal a security and defense partnership, which is finalized.  The EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who would be signing the defense deal, known as Security and Defense Partnership, is however not expected to be part of the trip. The pace would come on the heels of similar partnerships signed with the U.K., Canada and most recently India. Speaking last week at at the annual gathering of diplomats with the External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic body, Kallas said that the deal was coming as she announced that “later this week, I will sign the tenth [SDP] with Australia and subsequent ones with Iceland and Ghana in the coming days.”     James Panichi, Zoya Sheftalovich, Sebastian Starcevic and Nette Nöstlinger contributed reporting.

The European Commission is set to reject calls for an EU-wide ban on fur farming, opting instead to propose stricter animal-welfare standards for the sector, according to an internal draft communication seen by POLITICO. The undated document, setting out Brussels’ long-awaited response to the “Fur Free Europe” European Citizens’ Initiative, indicates the Commission believes species-specific welfare rules, rather than prohibition, represent the “most appropriate follow-up” to the campaign backed by more than 1.5 million EU citizens. Animal Welfare Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi is expected to steer the file through the final stages of internal consultation in the coming days, as the executive races to meet its self-imposed deadline to outline next steps by the end of March. The draft marks a significant setback for campaigners and several member countries that had hoped the Commission would seize the initiative to phase out fur farming across the bloc. The citizens’ petition, one of the largest ever submitted under the EU’s participatory mechanism, triggered a formal legal obligation for Brussels to assess possible legislative action. Instead, the Commission’s preliminary conclusion is that outright bans would carry “significant economic impacts” for the remaining fur-producing regions while failing to achieve the intended welfare gains if production simply shifts to third countries. The draft does not spell out what stricter welfare rules would look like in practice. The Commission would aim to propose legislation setting EU-wide standards for mink, foxes, raccoon dogs and chinchillas by the end of 2027. The document cites changing consumer attitudes as part of its rationale for the fur trade to continue. It says that buyers who continue to purchase fur “increasingly place importance” on how animals are treated and on broader sustainability concerns, suggesting that tougher and more transparent welfare rules could help shape remaining demand. But the standards-first approach has not been without resistance inside the Commission. The plan follows weeks of internal wrangling in Brussels, with some senior officials pushing to explore a ban. People familiar with the discussions said the cabinet of Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera ultimately accepted the standards-based route, while seeking a clearer and potentially faster legislative timeline. The decision could still face political headwinds. Several governments are pressing the Commission for clarity on its intentions, and diplomats say the issue is likely to resurface at upcoming meetings of EU agriculture ministers. The Commission’s stance contrasts with the findings of the European Food Safety Authority, which warned in a 2025 scientific opinion that the cage-based production systems used in fur farming lead to major welfare problems for animals. Many of these cannot be substantially mitigated without an overhaul of the current system, EFSA concluded. The document also underscores how sharply the sector has already declined. Fewer than 1,000 fur farms remained active across the EU in 2024, employing roughly 2,000 people, with production increasingly concentrated in a limited number of member states, including Finland, Greece and Spain.

Hungary is pressing the European Union to suspend tariffs and extra duties on fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus as the war in Iran threatens to drive up global food prices. Such a move would boost a key source of revenue in funding Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In a letter to European commissioners on Monday, Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy warned that rising global fertilizer prices and supply uncertainty exacerbated by the war in Iran risk squeezing EU farmers and pushing up food costs. He called for the levies on Russian and Belarusian products to be temporarily reduced to zero, warning that Hungary could face lower crop yields if access to cheaper imports remains restricted. The country produces only nitrogen fertilizers domestically and relies on foreign supplies of phosphorus and potash. The EU tightened duties on fertilizers from Russia and Belarus in 2025 after imports rose in the years following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The increase raised concern that Russia was redirecting gas exports hit by sanctions into fertilizer production to sustain export revenues. Russian shipments to the EU were still worth around €2 billion last year, but volumes fell sharply in early 2026 as the new levies began to bite. Iran’s effective blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the cost of fertilizer by tying up supplies of both the fuel and raw materials needed to produce it. Budapest is also pushing the EU to relax its ban on Russian gas to ease price pressures — an idea roundly rejected by Brussels.

Spain on Monday put forward Agriculture Minister Luis Planas as a candidate for the top job at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced the decision during his doorstep at the Foreign Council Affairs in Brussels. “It is a Spanish candidacy, but one that has a European vocation and also reflects Spain’s belief in multilateralism and the United Nations, at a time when food security is absolutely fundamental,” Albares said. Planas becomes a third European candidate for the post after EU agriculture ministers agreed at this month’s Brussels summit they should try to unite behind a single European contender. Italy has formally nominated former farm minister and current FAO Deputy Director-General Maurizio Martina, and Ireland backed Phil Hogan, the former EU griculture and trade commissioner. Currently leading the Rome-based U.N. agency is Qu Dongyu, a Chinese politician whose term will end in mid-2027. Formal candidacies to succeed him must be filed by the end of the year.

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s anti-deforestation law will put United States producers off exporting to the European market, harming EU competitiveness, a senior official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture told reporters in Brussels Friday. The law, also called EUDR, is “going to discourage us from looking at the European market” and from “paying attention to any European rules [linked to deforestation],” the official said. The law as it stands would affect $9 billion of U.S. trade to the EU annually, added the official, who spoke to journalists on condition that he was not named. A delegation of U.S. government representatives is finishing a tour of EU capitals — including Madrid, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Brussels — to lobby governments to simplify the EUDR ahead of an upcoming review of the rules next month. One example of a sector that could be affected is livestock farming, the official said, arguing these farmers depend on soybeans to feed their animals, and Europe does not produce enough protein feed. “It needs to import from countries that are better at it, like us,” he said, warning that the U.S. stopping that export “will drive up their costs, hurt their competitiveness.” The EU’s anti-deforestation law requires that companies police their supply chains to ensure that any commodities they use, such as palm oil, beef or coffee, have not contributed to deforestation. After complaints from industry groups and trade partners, EU institutions in December agreed to put off implementation of the law by a year — until Dec. 2026 — and mandated the Commission to present a review of the rules by April. “It’s particularly difficult for us because these [compliance] costs will be borne by our producers,” said the official. U.S. farmers also don’t want to share information on their farms with foreign governments, he said. Washington’s main qualms with the law include the fact that there’s no category of “negligible” risk in the EU’s ranking of countries by risk of deforestation. The U.S. — like all EU member countries as well as China, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Vietnam and others — has been labeled “low risk” under the EU’s deforestation classification system. Members of the European Parliament in the center-right European People’s Party have also backed the introduction of a “no risk” category, “for countries with stable or expanding forest areas.” The senior official also complained about a stipulation in the law that if the level of deforestation in any country exceeds 70,000 hectares annually, that country cannot be considered “low risk.” That standard “just doesn’t work for us,” they said. “It’s not fair.” Representatives from the European Commission are meeting with members of the delegation on Friday “at technical level” to discuss the law, a spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to POLITICO. European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told reporters in January that there would be no new legislative proposal come April, saying businesses need “predictability.” A 2024 report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated that, in 2023, U.S. exports of the seven commodities under the EUDR accounted for approximately 3 percent of the value of U.S. exports to the EU, “so overall the EUDR may not significantly affect U.S. trade.” European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told reporters in January that there would be no new legislative proposal come April, saying businesses need “predictability.” | Gabriel Luengas/Europa Press via Getty Images Still, the authors wrote, the law could affect U.S. producers of specific commodities covered by the law. In 2023, the highest value of covered commodities exported to the EU from the U.S. were wood and wood products ($4.5 billion), soybeans ($4 billion), rubber ($1.1 billion), and cattle, such as beef and related products ($409 million). Environmental groups are calling on EU governments and the Commission to stick by the EUDR and keep the rules intact. “Misleading and self-serving foreign pressure on the EU should not distract policy-makers from staying focused on facts,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, manager for forests at WWF EU, in an emailed statement. “Every year the EUDR is postponed results in the loss of nearly 50 million trees and the release of 16.8 million tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere.”

STRASBOURG — European and American officials are scrambling to avoid a return to their transatlantic trade war, amid increasing frustration in Washington over the EU’s failure to implement the transatlantic trade deal they agreed last summer. A trio of senior European lawmakers will travel to Washington next week, hoping to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who accuses the EU of implementing “zero percent” of the trade accord reached at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July 27. The mission to the U.S. comes amid of flurry of diplomatic contacts between EU and U.S. officials ahead of a high-stakes vote by European lawmakers expected on March 26 that will determine whether Brussels can implement last year’s accord. That vote is at risk of being delayed, yet again, after a series of previous hold ups. U.S. patience is wearing thin, raising the prospect that the tariff conflict could flare up again. “The EU has done approximately zero percent of what they were supposed to do for their trade deal with us. We quickly after the Turnberry deal came into compliance with that deal,” Greer said during a press call on Wednesday.  “The European Union has had their legislation for their tariffs pending for many, many, many, many months,” he added.  Top EU parliamentary negotiators will meet on March 17 to decide whether to push back their vote again. The Turnberry agreement is widely seen in Europe as a one-sided pact. In it, the EU accepted a 15 percent U.S. tariff on most exports, while itself pledging to scrap all tariffs on U.S. industrial goods. Many EU lawmakers fear that Trump could yet renege on the deal to make more tariff threats, as he has done over Greenland and Spain.  In the Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party — the political family of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — wants to see the deal approved to avoid retaliation by Trump and bring stability to businesses.  The Socialists & Democrats, liberals and Greens have voted against moving forward, however, after balking at the U.S. president’s latest tariff menaces against Spain, his strikes on Iran and his threats to stage a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. CRACKS IN TRUST Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has sought to reassure the Europeans that the U.S. will stick by the deal. Yet skepticism persists. “How can we get clarity with Trump [who] doesn’t respect the deals? I think that, for now, what we would need is some public statement on the willingness to respect the deal,” Brando Benifei, an Italian Socialist who is the Parliament’s point person for relations with the U.S., said on Tuesday.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has sought to reassure the Europeans that the U.S. will stick by the deal. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Benifei will be one of the three MEPs traveling to meet Greer. The others are Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament’s trade committee, and Polish center-right lawmaker Michał Szczerba, who sits on the foreign and security committees. They hope to meet Greer on March 20, but the EU lawmakers could already have delayed the vote by then. “I hope that we can find some common ground,” Lange said. Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish liberal who is skeptical on the trade pact, is also expected to meet with representatives of the U.S. mission to the EU, her office said. And Željana Zovko, the top negotiator on the file from the EPP, the biggest grouping in Parliament, will meet with U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder on Monday, she told POLITICO. Despite the worries from the U.S. side, Anna Cavazzini, the lead lawmaker on the file in the Greens group who is spearheading opposition to the deal, said she had not been contacted by the Americans. UNRELIABLE PARTNER Despite Bessent’s pledge on the Turnberry pact, the EU remains wary over what Trump will do next. The U.S. has, only this week, launched new investigations into unfair trade practices that could trigger more tariffs against the EU. That has redoubled concerns in Brussels that Trump plans to plow on with his aggressive trade agenda against Europe, undeterred by a Supreme Court ruling last month that substantially overturned his original tariff agenda. On top of the latest investigations, people close to the file say the White House will not shy away from imposing tariffs on national security grounds, such as Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Washington’s double-sided approach is not lost on European lawmakers.  “‘We’ll stick to the deal.’ And less than 24 hours later, they are already threatening us with new tariffs. It is impossible to work with the Trump administration like this,” the Socialist group’s vice president for trade policy, Kathleen Van Brempt, said in a post on X Thursday.  The EPP’s top trade lawmaker, Jörgen Warborn, last week pitched a “sunrise clause,” meaning the deal would only finally kick in if Washington upheld its side of the bargain. “That would give clarity because what the sunrise clause is doing, it’s making sure that the deal doesn’t kick in before it is confirmed that all the elements of the deal are upheld,” Warborn told POLITICO on Tuesday. Željana Zovko, the top negotiator on the file from the EPP, the biggest grouping in Parliament, will meet with U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder on Monday, she told POLITICO. | Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Benifei said the sunrise clause could enable his group to support the pact. Still, he explained, this would require provisions allowing the Commission not to implement the EU-U.S. agreement until Washington stops threatening the EU’s digital rules, and until the U.S. lowers tariffs on EU steel derivatives. “We are not there,” he said, expressing skepticism that the EPP would be willing to place such tough demands on the Commission. “They [EPP lawmakers] are a bit worried about the situation that is not moving,” he said. “I need to see what they are actually ready to do, because to be frank, my impression is that they are a bit in the mood [of saying] …‘Just let’s not make Trump angry.’” Carlo Martuscelli contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — The EU will respond “firmly and proportionately” to any breach of its trade deal with the U.S. reached last year, European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said Thursday. Gill was responding to probes into unfair trade practices launched by the U.S. overnight against the EU and other countries. The broad-spectrum investigations could result in the imposition of new tariffs, raising concerns in Brussels that this would breach the terms of the deal struck at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “We have not received any indication that the U.S. administration intends to deviate from those commitments,” Gill told a press conference. He added that the Commission would reach out to its U.S. counterparts to clarify how the investigations would affect the Turnberry deal. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Wednesday that his department was looking into whether countries’ policies are fueling excess manufacturing capacity — producing far more goods than demand supports — which officials say can flood global markets and squeeze U.S. manufacturers. The so-called Section 301 probes come after the U.S. Supreme Court last month struck down Trump’s original wide-ranging tariffs. The White House subsequently imposed blanket 10 percent tariffs in the interim as it works to enact new duties. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week gave private assurances to EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič that the U.S. intends to stick to the transatlantic trade deal, which sets a tariff ceiling of no higher than 15 percent on most EU exports.