BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s top trade official said he will urge lawmakers to freeze ratification of the EU-U.S. trade deal as legal and political uncertainty swirls around President Donald Trump’s latest tariff moves, Feb. 23, 2026.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee. Said, he will ask an emergency meeting of the committee Monday to pause work on approving the agreement. Until lawmakers receive a comprehensive legal assessment and “clear commitments” from the US administration. He described Washington’s shifting approach as “pure customs chaos,”. Arguing it is creating broad uncertainty for the EU and other US trading partners.
“Nobody can make sense of it anymore,” Lange wrote on his social media.
The push comes after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier use of emergency powers to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs, a decision that EU officials say has injected new doubt into how durable or enforceable U.S. tariff policy will be.
In response, Trump announced a 10% global tariff and then raised it to 15% on Saturday. Citing Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Which allows temporary tariffs for up to 150 days without congressional approval.
EU leaders and lawmakers have argued the new U.S. tariff action risks breaching the core understanding behind the transatlantic deal. Reached last summer in Turnberry, Scotland, between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Under that agreement, the U.S. would apply a 15% tariff ceiling to most EU exports, while the EU would remove tariffs on many American goods. The U.S. would also keep a 50% tariff on EU steel and aluminum, a provision critics in Europe have called lopsided, but one EU officials defended as a way to avert a wider trade war and protect broader strategic ties.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, publicly questioned whether the EU-U.S. trade deal remains valid. And said the bloc would take “necessary measures” if Washington does not respect its commitments, according to reports.
The European Commission, which negotiated the agreement, said it needs “full clarity” from the United States.
“A deal is a deal,” the Commission warned, stressing the EU is standing by its side of the bargain. While expecting Washington to keep tariffs from rising above the agreed ceiling so EU products retain competitive treatment.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič spoke Saturday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as Brussels sought assurances about the U.S. legal basis for tariffs and whether the new measures alter the deal’s terms, officials said.
The Parliament has already paused the ratification track once before. After Trump’s threats and pressure campaign linked to Greenland, and the latest tariff upheaval has revived concerns among lawmakers that the U.S. policy landscape is too volatile to lock in a long-term agreement.