EU greenlights delayed tariff deal with U.S., adds safeguard clauses

European Union (EU) lawmakers on Thursday approved the bloc's tariff deal with the United States reached in July last year, after months of delay and with new safeguard conditions in place.

Lawmakers responsible for trade added several provisions to the original agreement, including a "sunset clause" under which the EU's tariff cuts will automatically expire on March 31, 2028. Tariff preferences for U.S. steel, aluminium and related products will apply only if the United States fulfills its commitment to reduce tariffs on corresponding EU goods to 15 percent or below.

They also strengthened a suspension clause, allowing the EU to halt trade preferences if the United States imposes tariffs above the agreed 15-percent ceiling or introduces new duties on EU goods. In addition, a safeguard mechanism was introduced, enabling the European Commission to suspend the new rules if a surge in U.S. imports risks causing serious harm to EU industry.

Under the deal, the EU will eliminate tariffs on all U.S. industrial products and introduce tariff-rate quotas for a wide range of U.S. agri-food products entering the EU market. In return, Washington will set a 15-percent tariff ceiling on most EU goods exported to the United States.

EU greenlights delayed tariff deal with U.S., adds safeguard clauses

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship