India, May 21 -- The European Union approved Wednesday a tariff deal with the United States to cap tariffs on most EU exports at 15 per cent, 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, jeopardising 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 Scotla...