EU gives final go-ahead to agreement on tariffs with the US

The Council of the EU has formally adopted the two regulations implementing the tariff commitments set out in EU-US Declaration of 21 August 2025. This adoption completes the legislative process and confirms the EU’s commitment to a stable, predictable and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade relationship, whilst preserving the necessary safeguards to protect European economic interests.

The two regulations – the Council states – remove the remaining EU tariffs on US industrial products, introduce preferential access for certain non-sensitive US fishery and agricultural products through tariff quotas and reduced tariffs, and extend the suspension of tariffs on imports of lobsters, including processed lobsters (from all countries on the basis of the most-favoured-nation principle). The regulations also contain strengthened safeguard and suspension mechanisms.

In particular, they provide for a specific safeguard mechanism that enables the Commission to take prompt action in the event of significant increases in imports that cause, or threaten to cause, serious harm to EU operators, and strengthen the EU’s ability to suspend tariff preferences should the United States fail to honour its commitments or undermine the objectives of Joint Declaration or otherwise disrupt balanced trade relations, including through discriminatory measures. The two regulations will now be signed and published in the Official Journal and will enter into force on the day following their publication.