{"text":[[{"start":9.6,"text":"EU lawmakers and member states have struck a provisional deal to implement a trade pact with the US in the hope of averting President Donald Trump’s threat of extra tariffs."}],[{"start":19.85,"text":"The move early on Wednesday, which came almost a year after the EU-US trade deal was signed, includes safeguards that would let Brussels suspend tariff reductions if US imports harm European industry. "}],[{"start":31.85,"text":"It also allows the European Commission to suspend tariff preference if, by the end of 2026, Washington continues to apply duties above 15 per cent on EU steel and aluminium derivatives. "}],[{"start":44.7,"text":"Those tariffs, which cover hundreds of products containing steel and aluminium including motorcycles and washing machines and were one of the most contentious parts of the talks, remained higher than the 15 per cent ceiling, in some cases at 50 per cent."}],[{"start":59.900000000000006,"text":"The safeguards, which include a so-called sunset clause under which the main regulation would expire on December 31 2029 unless it is renewed, are designed to win over MEPs who have stalled the EU’s tariff cuts because the US raised some duties on EU goods above levels under the Turnberry agreement, as the trade deal is known. "}],[{"start":80.80000000000001,"text":"“Despite turbulence, the deal holds. We have demonstrated once again that the EU is a reliable trading partner,” Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, told the FT. He added that the steel discussions had been “probably the most difficult”. "}],[{"start":94.60000000000001,"text":"Šefčovič said he had spoken with US officials including commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and US trade representative Jamieson Greer, and that their first reaction was to “welcome” the outcome."}],[{"start":108.65,"text":"“What matters to the US is that the EU respects the Turnberry deal and its commitment to lower tariffs for lobsters and certain industrial products. That is what the EU is delivering,” he said. "}],[{"start":120.65,"text":"The EU agreed to keep allowing US lobster into the EU tariff-free for another five years, a small but politically symbolic concession first agreed in 2020 after Trump complained that Canadian lobster had better access to the EU market. "}],[{"start":135.1,"text":"“This is not a deal about the Trump administration. It is a deal to protect European businesses from further uncertainty,” said Željana Zovko, lead negotiator of the centre-right European People’s Party, which had argued for a swift closure of the deal. "}],[{"start":149.75,"text":"The trade deal, approved in Scotland last year, involved the EU paying 15 per cent tariffs on most exports to the US, while Brussels would cut its own levies on American industrial goods and some agricultural products to zero. "}],[{"start":163.85,"text":"But EU lawmakers delayed implementing the deal over Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and later after a US Supreme Court ruling threw his global tariff regime into uncertainty."}],[{"start":175.1,"text":"Trump raised the stakes last month, threatening to raise tariffs on EU cars and trucks to 25 per cent and warning that he would hit the EU with “much higher” tariffs if Brussels failed to implement its side of the deal before July 4."}],[{"start":192.4,"text":"EU lawmakers have been split between those pushing for a quick compromise to protect European industry and those demanding stronger safeguards before Brussels lowered its own trade barriers. "}],[{"start":204.55,"text":"The Commission had attempted to break the deadlock with a draft compromise, seen by the FT, that would allow it to suspend some tariff concessions if there was sufficient evidence of a sharp increase in US imports that threatened or caused serious injury to EU industry. "}],[{"start":219.85000000000002,"text":"Bernd Lange, the Socialist chair of the European parliament’s trade committee and lead negotiator on the file, said parliament had “substantially improved” the Commission proposal by adding a sunset clause and strengthening the suspension mechanism."}],[{"start":232.8,"text":"It had been a “rocky journey, but worth it”, he said."}],[{"start":236.60000000000002,"text":"The European parliament and EU countries will now vote to ratify the finished text."}],[{"start":249.10000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779268518_1067.mp3"}