EU Parliament Freezes Ratification of US Trade Pact After Court Nixes Tariffs, Trump Slaps 15% Blanket Duty

Trade partners have seen this movie before: Nixon’s 10 % import surcharge in August 1971—also under Section 122—collapsed the Bretton Woods system and signalled a turn toward unilateral US trade measures. Today’s replay hints at a deeper, decades-long erosion of multilateral rules first codified in the 1947 GATT and later the WTO. By yanking legal justifications and switching statutes overnight, Washington reminds allies that US trade policy can pivot on domestic politics rather than treaties, encouraging the EU to diversify deals (see CETA 2017, EU-Mercosur tentative 2019) and to build autonomous defence and industrial policies. Whether this moment becomes another Smoot-Hawley (1930) inflection or merely a 1971-style blip depends on Congress: Section 122 expires in 150 days unless lawmakers bless it. Over a 100-year horizon, the episode underscores a secular contest between rule-based globalization and resurgent economic nationalism; the outcome will shape supply-chain geography, dollar primacy, and the durability of post-Cold-War trans-Atlantic alignment.