The European Union has paused approval of a trade deal with the United States following warnings from President Donald Trump that countries should not “play games” in response to a Supreme Court ruling striking down many of his tariffs.
Now official: EP work on EU-US deal is on hold until further notice!
— Bernd Lange (@berndlange) February 23, 2026
Our negotiating team just decided to put on hold @ep_trade legal implementation of Turnberry deal&postone vote foreseen for tomorrow.
Clarity&legal certainty are needed before any further steps can be taken
“Clarity & legal certainty are needed before any further steps can be taken,” Lange wrote on social media.
The announcement came as Trump warned that he could raise tariffs on countries that alter their course in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” Trump said Monday on Truth Social.
The trade deal would have established a baseline 15% tariff on imports from the European Union, with higher rates for steel and aluminum. The bloc also agreed to purchase $750 billion in American energy, invest an additional $600 billion into the United States, and purchase American military equipment.
After the Supreme Court ruled Friday, Trump announced a 10% global tariff on all imports into the United States. He later said he would raise it to 15%, though that increase has not yet taken effect. The 10% tariffs went into effect Tuesday morning, but a White House official told NBC News that they would be increased to 15% once the proper documentation was ready for the president to sign.
Lange claimed that those actions violated the terms of the trade agreement.
“We wanted to have really stability and predictability. And unfortunately, the government, the president of the United States, has really made a breach of this deal several times,” he told CNBC on Tuesday. “We need clarity, and this is also my clear request for the United States government — give us a certainty that for the next three years, we have no other irritations with new tariffs from the United States, and then we stick to the deal.”
In his dissent from the decision striking down Trump’s tariff, Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned that the ruling “could generate uncertainty” around trade agreements negotiated under the tariffs imposed under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).
Beyond adding confusion to existing trade agreements, the tariff decision has also prompted further litigation. On Monday, FedEx sued the Trump administration seeking a full refund of the tariffs it paid under IEEPA.
