EU lawmaker committee backs deal to avert new US trade clash

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS, June 2 (Reuters) - A European Parliament committee voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove EU import duties on many U.S. goods, a step to comply with the trade deal agreed with Washington last year and avert the return of transatlantic tariff conflict.

Under the deal struck at U.S. President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July, the EU agreed to remove import duties on U.S. industrial goods and grant preferential access to U.S. farm and seafood produce, while accepting U.S. tariffs of 15% on most EU goods.

Ten months since that framework accord, the EU has still not fulfilled its side of the deal, prompting Trump to say he would impose "much higher" tariffs if the EU does not implement its commitments by July 4.

The European Parliament's trade committee voted in favour of legislation to enact the duty reductions, with 31 for, six against and three abstentions. It also backed continuing zero duties for U.S. lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020. The legislation still needs to be approved by the full EU assembly in mid-June, but Tuesday's committee backing gives a strong indication of how that will go.

EU progress on the deal should at least bring some calm to the world's largest trading relationship, with an annual exchange of $2 trillion in goods and services despite Trump's determination through tariffs to reduce the goods trade deficit with the bloc of more than $200 billion.

The EU legislation has been delayed after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on European allies over Greenland and after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his global tariffs. 

EU lawmakers expressed disquiet over the deal and Trump's threats. They inserted amendments to suspend concessions if the U.S. president reneges on the agreement and to terminate the deal at the end of 2029 unless there is new legislation to renew it.

The Trump administration has said it will review whether the amendments are compliant with the deal.

(Reporting by Phil Blenkinsop;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Andrew Cawthorne)