President Trump’s pledge to tax eight NATO allies to force a deal on Greenland triggered swift blowback across the Atlantic, jeopardizing the U.S.–EU trade agreement Trump once called the “biggest deal ever made.”
Why it matters: Trump’s escalating fixation on the self-governing island has triggered the sharpest European economic threats since World War II in a test of whether the post-war alliance has a breaking point.
The latest: Trump threatened 10% tariffs starting Feb. 1 on France,Germany,the U.K., the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland until the U.S. reaches a deal to buy Greenland. The tariffs would rise to 25% in June.
- french President Emmanuel Macron and others have reportedly called for the EU to deploy its anti-coercion instrument, a 2023 tool never before used that could restrict american companies’ access to the European single market.
- The White House did not promptly respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Case in point: Manfred Weber,who leads the European Parliament’s largest party bloc,the centre-right European People’s Party,saeid within hours of Trump’s tariff threat that approval of the EU–U.S. trade deal “is not possible at this stage.”
- He added, “The 0% tariffs on U.S. products are off the table.”
