EU trade chief to meet G7 counterparts as pressure mounts over US tariff threats

Euronews · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Published on 23/02/2026 - 13:58 GMT+1•Updated 14:24 EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is set to meet G7 trade ministers on Monday after United States President Donald Trump upped the pressure on trading partners with a 15% across-the-board tariffs on imports entering the American market. Trump's move came after a US Supreme Court ruling last week struck down several global duties he had imposed from the White House last year, overturning a central part of his trade policy. Brussels is now demanding legal clarity. The EU is bound to Washington by a trade pact clinched in July 2025 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump, setting tariffs on EU exports at 15% while committing the bloc to slash its own duties to zero. “Full clarity on what these new developments mean for the EU-US trade relationship is the absolute minimum that is required in order for us the EU to make a clear-eyed assessment and decide on next steps,” Commission deputy spokesperson Olof Gill said on Monday. Key Parliament vote expected Šefčovič’s G7 talks come ahead of a closed-door meeting of EU ambassadors to assess the fallout from the latest developments in the US. Some member states, including France, are prepared to deploy the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument – the so-called "trade bazooka" that allows restrictions on public procurement, licenses and intellectual property rights if necessary to push back against external pressure. Attention is now shifting to the European Parliament, which was set to vote Tuesday on implementing the EU-US agreement by cutting tariffs on US goods, as included in the deal. Instead, MEPs are meeting on Monday afternoon to decide on the future enforcement of the agreement. The Parliament has led resistance to the US administration, arguing the deal signed in Scotland last summer was unbalanced. German MEP Bernd Lange, who chairs the Parliament's Committee on International Trade, said on Sunday that he will urge negotiators to suspend the agreement. But Zeljana Zovko, lead negotiator for the EPP – the Parliament’s largest group – struck a cooler tone, telling Euronews that MEPs “keep calm and do our [their] part.” “No need to add any more fuel to an already existing fire,” she said.