On the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adjustment of customs duties on the import of certain goods… originating in the United States of America and opening of tariff quotas for imports of certain goods originating in the United States of America

for the Committee on International Trade on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adjustment of customs duties on the import of certain goods originating in the United States of America and opening of tariff quotas for imports of certain goods originating in the United States of America

(COM(2025)0471 – C100193/2025 – 2025/0261(COD))

The Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

The Committee on Budgets,

A.whereas the proposal aims to apply a 0 % customs duty rate on certain goods originating in the United States and open autonomous tariff quotas for certain goods originating in the United States, in line with the commitments set out in the Joint Statement on a United States–European Union framework on an agreement on reciprocal, fair, and balanced trade (the Joint Statement);

B.whereas Article 3 of the proposal provides for the possibility to suspend the tariff concessions granted under this Regulation, in whole or in part, in the event that the United States does not comply with its commitments under the Joint Statement;

C.whereas customs duties represent a well-established source of revenue deriving from the EU’s trade policy and constitute the largest component of the EU budget’s traditional own resources; whereas traditional own resources account for around 10-15 % of total own resources revenue, corresponding to EUR 22.2 billion in 2025;

D.whereas the forecast method for customs duties is approved each year by the Advisory Committee on Own Resources and takes into account trade patterns and volumes and general economic trends;

E.whereas in 2025, three amending budgets have already revised customs revenue; whereas exact estimates of traditional own resources cannot be fully assessed ex ante;

F.whereas a lower tariff of customs duties can increase trade volumes and thus yield similar amounts of revenue;

G.whereas the own resources system is designed to absorb fluctuations of income through the adjustment of the call rate of gross national income-based contributions – operating as the balancing item – offsetting any reduction in the share of revenue, in line with Article 2(1)(d) of Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2020/2053 of 14 December 2020 on the system of own resources of the European Union and repealing Decision 2014/335/EU, Euratom;

H.whereas the EU and the United States have the largest and deepest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world; whereas the proposal is designed to foster stable transatlantic trade relations; whereas any trade facilitation measure towards a third country should always contribute to strengthening the EU’s position in that country’s market, rather than result in one-sided concessions;

I.whereas the political agreement to stabilise trade relations has been achieved against the potential backdrop of significant macroeconomic risk, with economic analysis pointing to possible contraction of the EU’s GDP in the short run, a shock that should be mitigated by reinforcing European resilience and market safeguards;

1.Notes that the estimated annual budgetary impact of the forgone customs duty revenues amounts to approximately EUR 1.2 billion in 2025 and EUR 3.9 billion annually until 2030, calculated by multiplying current imports from the United States subject to tariffs by a trade-weighted average duty rate; notes that the proposal does not have any impact on expenditure but a non-negligible impact on revenue;

2.Emphasises, in this regard, that the EU budget is already under significant strain, exacerbated by the payment of debt and associated interest stemming from NextGenerationEU funds, and therefore emphasises the need to conduct a careful assessment of the budget to bolster efficiency and simplification, as well as to reduce duplication, administrative barriers and unnecessary spending, and to comply with the 2020 Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) on own resources;

3.Urges the Commission, therefore, to maximise the pressure on the Member States to find a swift agreement on the new own resources package and calls on the Council to adopt this proposal as a matter of urgency without further delay; calls on the Commission to continue exploring additional own resources and new revenue sources for the EU budget beyond the IIA, such as the revenue potential of an EU-wide digital services levy, should other proposed own resources not gain support among Member States;

4.Supports the Commission’s latest proposal for a reform of the EU Customs Union; stresses the importance of a swift agreement on the legislative proposals of the new EU Customs Reform package, in particular both the abolition of the de minimis exemption from customs duties and the establishment of the e-commerce fee for small shipments; encourages the Commission to explore further means in customs policy with the aim of strengthening the revenue side and supporting the EU’s political objectives;

5.Recalls the distinction between the total duties foregone and the effective loss of revenue to the EU budget, given that Member States retain 25 % of the duties collected as collection costs; recalls in this context the recent Commission proposal to lower the share of collection costs to 10 % and Parliament’s long-standing call for an increase in the share of traditional, genuine own resources, particularly customs duties;

6.Acknowledges that the volume of customs duties due under the regulation may vary depending on a variety of parameters and future economic trends; stresses that the resulting impact on EU budget revenues remains uncertain;

7.Calls on the Commission to ensure full transparency in the estimation and monitoring of forgone customs revenues, and to keep the budgetary authority regularly informed of any deviations from the initial forecast, so as to preserve the predictability and stability of the EU’s finances;

8.Recalls also that aggressive trade policies by the United States against other countries, notably China, could negatively affect certain EU sectors and regions exposed to increased import and price competition, which could in turn have implications for the EU budget, including through increased reliance on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund; notes that, according to Eurostat, the imports of Chinese machinery and vehicles increased by 16.4 % in June 2025;

9.Notes that a potential expansion of bilateral trade may have second-round effects on other own resources bases, such as VAT and gross national income;

10.Determines that the proposal is compatible with the current multiannual financial framework, the system of own resources and the corresponding IIA; determines its overall compatibility with the budgetary principles established in the Financial Regulation;

11.Expects the Commission to take the proposal into account in the upcoming annual budgetary procedures and in their post-2028 own resources’ projections.

As part of its budgetary assessment, the Committee on Budgets also submits the following amendments to the draft proposal:

Amendment 1

Proposal for a regulation

Recital 10 a (new)

The rapporteur for budgetary assessment declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her budgetary assessment input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.