EU overcomes fierce internal debate to agree on tariff deal with US

BRUSSELS, May 20 (AP): The European Union approved Wednesday a tariff deal with the United States to cap tariffs on most EU exports at 15%, avoiding a direct clash with President Donald Trump ahead of his July 4 deadline.

Fierce debates raged among the 27-nation bloc's lawmakers and leaders, jeopardizing the hard-won bargain governing the massive exchange of goods and services across the Atlantic Ocean between two of the world's largest economies, now weathering dangerous fallout from the war in Iran.

In the European Parliament, legislators threatened to block the trade agreement that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had struck last July with United States President Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland, following months of bargaining in the wake of his administration's global fusillade of tariffs.

The handshake between von der Leyen and Trump initiated months more of negotiations over details between Washington and Brussels, just as criticism within Europe of the deal spiked after Trump threatened to take control of Greenland.