The European Commission has welcomed a political agreement reached by the European Parliament and EU member states on rules to remove tariffs on all US industrial goods and to give preferential access to the EU market for certain US agricultural and seafood products.
The agreement covers two EU regulations and follows commitments set out in an EU-US Joint Statement dated 21 August 2025, the Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.
The final texts will now be sent for formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council in the coming weeks so they can enter into force quickly.
The Commission pointed out that the measures include a safeguard clause — a mechanism that allows action if imports rise sharply and harm EU producers — alongside regular monitoring of trade flows.
It said the regulations would also allow the EU, in specifically defined circumstances, to suspend some or all of the tariff concessions.
If approved, the liberalised market access would apply until the end of 2029, with the option of extending it further.
What the wider EU-US deal includes
The transatlantic partnership is the world’s biggest bilateral trade and investment relationship, with EU-US trade in goods and services topping €1.7 trillion in 2025, the Commission said.
This included €911 billion in goods and €865 billion in services, with more than €4.9 billion crossing the Atlantic each day.
The EU and US have also built up mutual investment, with the total stock of EU and US firms’ investment in each other’s markets exceeding €4.8 trillion in 2024.
The deal’s key parameters were agreed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump in July 2025 and later reflected in the Joint Statement.
Under the wider understanding, the US committed to keep a maximum tariff ceiling of 15% for most EU exports, including cars and car parts, and to exclude additional tariffs for certain product groups including unavailable natural resources, aircraft and parts, and generic pharmaceuticals.
In return, the EU committed to remove tariffs on all industrial goods and improve market access for certain non-sensitive agri-food products.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said the political agreement followed more than five hours of negotiations and was aligned with the EU-US Joint Statement.
