EU Puts Turnberry Trade Deal Into Law, but Steel Fight Keeps It Fragile

BRUSSELS, The European Union has converted its year-old tariff truce with the United States into binding law, a milestone that Brussels has been working toward since Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shook hands at Turnberry, Scotland, last July. But the legislation that finally cleared the Council of the EU on June 25 is hedged with enough escape hatches to signal that few in Brussels consider the deal settled.

According to implementing regulations reviewed by Sullivan and Cromwell LLP, the Council on that date adopted two regulations that together enact the EU's side of the so-called Joint Statement of August 21, 2025. The deal was born out of a bruising stretch of transatlantic tariff escalation: <cite index="10-6">in 2025, the United States imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum that were later raised to 50 percent, a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports, 25 percent tariffs on automobiles and parts, and 50 percent tariffs on copper.</cite>

The framework that emerged from Turnberry locked in a ceiling of 15 percent on most EU exports to the United States. <cite index="10-4">The implementing regulations convert those political commitments into binding EU law and represent a significant step toward stabilizing transatlantic trade relations following the series of U.S. tariff measures imposed in 2025.</cite>

The road from handshake to law was anything but smooth. <cite index="11-1,11-2">The European Parliament suspended approval of the deal in January in protest against Trump's demand to take over Greenland, with the suspension announced in Strasbourg as the U.S. president addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos.</cite> The Parliament eventually reversed course: <cite index="11-7">on March 26, EU lawmakers approved the agreement, which included a suspension clause, a sunrise clause, and a sunset clause, by 417 votes in favour, 154 against, and 71 abstentions.</cite> <cite index="11-10,11-11">On June 16, Parliament approved the implementing regulation by 440 to 151 votes, and on June 25 the text was signed by the presidents of both institutions.</cite>

What the law actually does on the EU side is straightforward enough on paper. <cite index="22-12">The main regulation eliminates remaining customs duties on U.S. industrial goods and grants preferential market access, including via tariff-rate quotas and reduced tariffs for certain U.S. seafood and non-sensitive agricultural products.</cite> <cite index="13-16">A second regulation extends the duty suspension for imports of lobster, including processed lobster.</cite>

But it's the safeguard architecture that tells you everything about the mood in Brussels right now. <cite index="13-3,13-4">The Commission may suspend the deal where the United States fails to meet the commitments of the Joint Statement, where it otherwise undermines the objectives of the agreement or disrupts trade and investment relations with the EU, including by discriminating against EU economic operators, and even where there are sufficient indications that such actions may occur in the future.</cite>

The sharpest tripwire is on steel. <cite index="22-2">The Commission is empowered to suspend concessions concerning steel and aluminium products to the U.S. if by December 31, 2026 the United States continues to apply a tariff rate higher than 15 percent on steel and aluminium derivative products imported from the EU.</cite> Right now, those products face a combined rate well above that: <cite index="20-29,20-30">Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were doubled from 25 to 50 percent in June 2025 under Proclamation 10896, and EU-origin steel currently pays 10 percent under Section 122 on top of that 50 percent, for a combined rate of 60 percent.</cite>

The deal also carries a formal end date. <cite index="22-3">Co-legislators agreed to introduce a sunset clause under which the regulation will cease to apply at the end of 2029 unless further action is taken.</cite>

Reporting by Euronews noted that the negotiations concluded just two weeks after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on EU cars if Europeans did not implement the agreement by July 4. <cite index="21-15">The so-called Turnberry Agreement, criticised by MEPs as unbalanced, raises U.S. tariffs on EU goods to as much as 15 percent.</cite> That figure is lower than the 30 percent Trump had originally proposed for Europe, but it's still a number Brussels would never have accepted as a baseline in any normal negotiating environment.

For now, the regulations are law. Whether they stay law depends on what Washington does in the next six months on steel.

Sources cited:
- Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, EU Implements Tariff Commitments Under the EU-U.S. Trade Deal (https://www.sullcrom.com/insights/memo/2026/June/EU-Implements-Tariff-Commitments-EU-U-S-Trade-Deal)
- Council of the EU, EU-US trade: Council and Parliament strike a deal (https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/05/20/eu-us-trade-council-and-parliament-strike-a-deal-to-implement-the-tariff-elements-of-the-joint-statement/)
- Euronews, EU approves implementation of US tariffs under Trump hammer (https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/20/eu-approves-trade-deal-with-the-us-despite-uncertainty-in-transatlantic-relations)
- Wikipedia, Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_Reciprocal,_Fair,_and_Balanced_Trade)
- TariffsTool, EU Tariffs 2026 (https://www.tariffstool.com/guides/eu-tariffs)