Frankfurt, 26 March 2026 – On the European Parliament’s vote regarding the EU-US trade deal, VDMA President Bertram Kawlath states:

• “The European Parliament’s approval to move forward with the EU-US trade deal sends a strong signal for greater stability in transatlantic trade. For the machinery and equipment industry, this is an important step toward more certainty and reliability.”

• “With the European Parliament’s negotiating mandate now in place, we call on the EU institutions to promptly secure a trilogue agreement to implement the trade deal.” • “The European Parliament has tied the agreement’s entry into force to rolling back all tariffs that exceed the agreed 15-percent cap. This is a sensible step, since particularly the steel and aluminum tariffs on derivatives push the rate beyond that cap. Currently, around 40 percent of machinery exports to the United States are affected.”

• “For machinery and equipment manufacturers, these tariff rate reductions are essential, as American customers of machinery products currently pay an average tariff rate of 24 percent, which is significantly higher than what was agreed.”

The VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 900 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.