00:01Hey! What you doing tonight at 9pm? Maybe going for a date?
00:06If so, bear a thought for European lawmakers and diplomats locked tonight in a room in Strasbourg,
00:11desperately trying to prevent an all-out transatlantic trade war.
00:15And the clock is ticking down to an unforgiving 4th of July deadline set by Donald Trump,
00:20who has threatened a 25% tariff on European cars if Brussels refuses to accept his terms.
00:27Alright, so how did Europe end up in this mess?
00:32Last July, Trump and Ursula von der Leyen struck a trade deal in Scotland.
00:37And the maths looked simple. Zero tariffs on US industrial goods against a 15% cap on European exports.
00:44And all of that was built to protect a relationship with almost 1.7 trillion euros.
00:50And that's a lot of zeros.
00:52But now the European Parliament is pushing back.
00:55After a US Supreme Court ruling against the tariffs,
00:59Washington introduced new duties on steel and aluminium, effectively violating the treaty before signature.
01:06And European lawmakers argue Europe cannot be bullied, so they are baking free defensive shields into the text.
01:12The known as Sunrise Clause stores the deal until Washington drafts these steel duties.
01:17And there is also the Sunset Clause, which automatically ends the agreement in March 2028, so just before Trump leaves
01:25office.
01:26Finally, there is also the Greenland Clause allowing Brussels to suspend everything if Trump threatens European territorial integrity again.
01:35And quite predictably, this has split Brussels.
01:39The centre-right EPP wants a quick deal to avoid industry chaos, but the socialists are digging in.
01:45And top European Parliament negotiator Bern Lange insists European legislation must not be dictated by threats from Washington.
01:53So if negotiators reach a compromise tonight, the tax heads to a plenary vote in June.
01:59But if the deadlock holds, this massive trade relationship hits a cliff edge.
02:04And that 4th of July deadline will bring a wave of American tariffs straight to Europe's doorstep.
02:10So if you are going on a date tonight, you now have a perfect icebreaker topic.
02:16And no, you don't have to thank me for that.
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