The Council of the European Union formally adopted two regulations on 25 June 2026 implementing the tariff-related commitments set out in the EU-US Joint Statement of 21 August 2025, completing the legislative process. The regulations remove remaining EU customs duties on US industrial goods, introduce preferential access for certain US seafood and non-sensitive agricultural products through tariff rate quotas and reduced tariffs, and extend the duty suspension on lobster imports, including processed lobster, from all countries on a most-favoured-nation basis. The regulations also include reinforced safeguard and suspension mechanisms, allowing the Commission to act swiftly in cases of significant import surges causing serious injury to EU operators, and to suspend tariff preferences if the US does not respect its commitments or disrupts balanced trade relations. The main regulation will cease to apply at the end of 2029, with a Commission impact assessment due by 30 June 2029, while the lobster regulation applies retroactively from 1 August 2025 and expires on 31 July 2030. The adoption follows a political agreement between the Council and the European Parliament reached on 20 May 2026, and the regulations were proposed by the European Commission on 28 August 2025, days after the Joint Statement. The measures aim to stabilise transatlantic trade, which surpassed €1.7 trillion in 2025, while preserving EU guardrails. The regulations will be signed and published in the Official Journal, entering into force the following day.
Source📰 Read press release ↗