EU assembly will back US deal, but US commitment uncertain, says EU lawmaker

The European Union is set to fulfil its side of the EU-U.S. trade deal through a vote in parliament next week, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday, while expressing little confidence that the United States will stick to the deal's terms.

Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament's trade committee, said he expected a clear majority of the EU assembly to back the deal struck last July at U.S. President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.

The German Social Democrat said the approval was only possible because of a number of safeguards put in place by the parliament, allowing the EU to react if the Trump administration breached the deal's terms and terminating the deal at the end of 2029 unless there is new legislation to renew it.

"You can't have any certainty. That's the problem," Lange told a media briefing.

"As long as the U.S. set-up remains as it is... with decisions on important issues only made in the White House and by the president you have to constantly expect that decisions will be made against agreements," he continued. "We see that and others too, such as Brazil."

The Trump administration has proposed 25% tariffs on many imports from Brazil, which Lange said appeared politically motivated.

The lawmaker also said that the relative advantage the European Union had enjoyed under the Turnberry deal, with lower tariffs on its exports than faced by many rivals, had gone now that 10% U.S. tariffs applied almost universally.

"We can completely forget the special transatlantic relationship in this matter and we have to defend our interests rationally," he said.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week that the United States was committed to complying with the terms of the trade agreement. "We understand that a deal is a deal," he told reporters on the sidelines of an OECD meeting in Paris.