LAST UPDATE | 15 hrs ago

THE EUROPEAN UNION has paused the approval of its recently negotiated trade deal with the United States after the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are unlawful. 

European Parliament negotiators met today to formally agree to freeze plans to approve the deal agreed last year. The parliament’s trade committee had been due to give its green light tomorrow.

Following the urgently convened meeting, trade committee chief Bernd Lange confirmed that the process had been officially paused, saying that “clarity and certainty are needed before any further steps can be taken”. 

Today Trump threatened to further ramp up tariffs on any country that “wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision”. 

BUYER BEWARE!! pic.twitter.com/Kn0Jb5rvRY

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 23, 2026

MEPs from different parliamentary groups told the AFP news agency they supported putting the deal on ice until there is more clarity on what the court ruling means for the EU.

A number of parliamentary groupings had expressed support for the suspension of the deal’s approval earlier this morning. 

EPP MEP Zeljana Zovko said she supported putting work on hold until the European Commission clarifies with Washington what the conditions for the EU are and explain what is the “better option for us to continue with”.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews told The Journal he also supports suspending the approval of the deal. 

“Before we get clarity from the US, we cannot proceed with approval of the deal in the European Parliament. Businesses doing transatlantic trade need certainty,” Andrews said.

Green MEP Anna Cavazzini said she supported pausing the vote until there was more clarity.

Trump temporarily raised the global duty on imports into the United States to 15% at the weekend, after which the EU called on him to abide by the deal.

Under that agreement, Washington agreed a blanket 15% tariff on most EU goods but his global duty could see EU goods face higher duties.

“We will not be able to vote on the Turnberry agreement until we have full clarity on how the Supreme Court’s ruling affects the tariff arrangement,” MEP for liberal Renew group Karin Karlsbro said, referring to the deal.

“The United States must get its trade policy in order, this level of chaos is not serious,” she added.

In a post on his Truth Social platform today, Trump again took aim at the supreme court ruling, calling it “ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive”. 

Trump claimed that the court had “accidentally and unwittingly” given him “far more powers and strength” than he had prior to the ruling. 

He also claimed, without clear explanation: “I can use Licenses to do absolutely ‘terrible’ things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades.”

Indicating his intention to circumvent the court’s ruling, Trump said: “The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.”

In a later post, Trump wrote: “As President, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of Tariffs. It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago! They were also just reaffirmed by the ridiculous and poorly crafted supreme court decision!”

With reporting from AFP