The European Commission sees contradictions between Trump’s new tariffs and the EU-US trade agreement

The European Commission has asked the United States to communicate with “complete clarity” its next steps after President Donald Trump announced this Saturday a 15% global tariff in retaliation after the country’s Supreme Court one day struck down the legal basis for its original levies.

The high court invalidated the effect of Trump’s initial tariffs, ordered under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but the US president has proclaimed these new levies under another instrument such as Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which enables the president to impose maximum tariffs of 15% for an initial period of 150 days. After that time, however, the tariffs can only be extended with the consent of the US Congress.

After the president of the Trade Committee of the European Parliament (INTA), Bernd Lange, openly raised the possibility of suspending the processing of the EU-US trade agreement agreed last August in Turnberry (Scotland), arguing that the situation is “pure chaos” and that “no one understands at this point” what is happening, it is now the European Commission that is asking for explanations and expressing serious doubts about the compatibility of the new tariffs.

“The current situation is not conducive to ‘fair, balanced and mutually beneficial’ transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed by both parties and detailed in the EU-US Joint Declaration of August 2025,” the Commission says in a statement published this Sunday.

“A deal is a deal,” adds the European Commission. “As the United States’ main trading partner, the EU expects this country to fulfill the commitments established in the Joint Declaration, just as the EU maintains its own,” he said about tariffs that “when applied unpredictably, tariffs are inherently disruptive, undermine confidence and stability in global markets and generate greater uncertainty in international supply chains.”

SEFCOVIC HAS TALKS WITH THE US

This past Saturday, after Trump announced the 15% tariffs, the European Trade Commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, began a round of talks with the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, to gather more information about President Trump’s decision, the Commission confirmed without giving further details.

“The EU’s priority”, in any case, adds the Commission to conclude its statement, “is to preserve a stable and predictable transatlantic trading environment, while acting as a global support point for rules-based trade.”