By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union should make its removal of tariffs on many products from the United States conditional on concessions from Washington and insert safeguard and sunset clauses into legislation, a senior EU lawmaker said on Thursday.
The European Commission’s proposal of a law to remove EU tariffs on U.S. products, part of the end-July EU-U.S. tariff deal, requires approval from the European Parliament and EU governments. Under the deal, the U.S. will broadly impose 15% tariffs on EU goods.
Bernd Lange, the lead overseer in the European Parliament of EU plans to reduce its tariffs, set out five conditions in a draft of a report on which the EU assembly will vote in the next two months.
“More or less everyone has criticised the situation … and therefore I think there is a big appetite in the European Parliament to improve the legislation,” Lange told a news conference. “The (July) deal is just a starting point.”
Lange, who chairs the parliament’s trade committee, said the United States must remove the 50% tariffs it introduced in August on the metal content of 407 products such as wind turbines and motorcycles.
Under the lawmaker’s proposal, the EU would keep in place its tariffs on those products from the U.S. until a solution is found.
TARIFF REMOVAL TO APPLY FOR 18 MONTHS
The draft report proposes the tariff removal should apply for 18 months and only be extended based on an assessment of its impact and on U.S. willingness to move towards a more balanced deal.
Lange also wants to introduce a safeguard mechanism to allow the EU to act if tariff preferences granted to U.S. producers result in a surge in import volumes of a given product by more than 10%. He also wants the EU to set out more clearly its ability to suspend the legislation.
The parliament’s trade committee will vote on the draft report on November 4 and the wider EU assembly in December.
EU lawmakers and EU governments would then have to negotiate a final text, which may be provisionally approved in March or April.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Ed Osmond)
