Q REPORTS (EFE) The European Union (EU) has reacted to the tariff chaos unleashed a year ago by Donald Trump by accelerating its search for new partners and modifying the trade agreement initially reached between Brussels and Washington to include a clause against further attempts at blackmail.
The current state of the EU’s trade relations with the United States and other international partners is very different from that of a year ago, when US President Donald Trump launched his strategy of “reciprocal tariffs” against the world.
Plummeting European surplus
On April 2, 2025, Trump announced a 20% tariff on almost all EU exports, double the 10% universal tariff applied to other countries.
In the first quarter of that year, the European trade surplus with the world’s leading power exceeded 80 billion euros—a balance resulting from “unfair” trade practices, according to the Republican president—and represented nearly 20% of the bloc’s total exports.
Since then, and after months of trade war and tariff fluctuations on both sides of the Atlantic, the European surplus has steadily declined, reaching 31 billion euros in the last quarter of 2025.
New trade framework with protections for the EU
Last Thursday, the European Parliament decided to safeguard the Union’s interests in its trade with the United States by opting for the introduction of protective clauses against potential new tariffs or blackmail from the White House.
With this decision, the European Parliament brought to a close three months of tension after MEPs twice stalled the agreement’s ratification process. The first delay was due to Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and impose higher tariffs on European countries that reinforced their military presence on the Arctic island. The second was due to the Supreme Court ruling that struck down a significant portion of the Republicans’ tariffs.
The European Parliament’s approval will allow for the full implementation of the trade agreement reached last July, which set a maximum tariff of 15% on most European imports and eliminated EU tariffs on US industrial goods.
In addition to the initial agreement between Trump and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, MEPs added new clauses that allow the EU to suspend the pact if Washington introduces new tariffs or questions European territorial integrity, among other provisions.
Opening Up to Latin America and Asia-Pacific
In recent months, the EU has finalized its historic free trade agreement with Mercosur, which, after 26 years of negotiations, will create one of the world’s largest integrated trade zones. The trade pact will begin to be applied provisionally in May, pending a ruling from the Court of Justice of the EU, to which the European Parliament has appealed.
Furthermore, the bloc recently concluded a new trade agreement with Australia after a decade of talks, finalized negotiations with India for what both sides describe as “the mother of all agreements,” and reached another with Indonesia last September.
“These agreements are significant because, although they are not the countries with which the EU trades the most, they stand out for their large populations and economic growth prospects,” Pedro Aznar, Professor of Economics and Finance at Esade, told EFE.
The expert highlighted in particular the agreement with Mercosur, following its long and complex negotiations, and the agreement with India, which grants trade access to the world’s most populous country despite it being “a complicated and highly regulated market.”
While he believes it is necessary to “give these agreements time,” the academic considers the EU’s efforts “necessary but not sufficient” to compensate for the nearly 28% drop in its exports to the US over the past year, despite increased trade with other partners.
When asked about a possible rapprochement with China by the Union, something countries like Germany and France have pursued bilaterally, Aznar said it is a “delicate” option in which Brussels is trying to strike a balance between strengthening ties with the world’s second-largest economy while respecting trade rules, and at the same time avoiding further sanctions from Washington.