Macron threatens Trump with trade ‘bazooka’

Emmanuel Macron to call on European Union leaders to unleash ‘trade bazooka’ in response to Donald Trump Greenland tariffs.

The US president imposed a 10 percent tax on exports from eight European countries. Including France and EnglandTo send troops to the Arctic island.

Sources close to the French president said on Sunday that Mr Macron would call his EU counterparts and ask them to activate the bloc’s “anti-repression tool” If Mr. Trump follows through on his threat.

This will be the first time the instrument, designed to restrict imports of goods and services from countries that seek to use trade to empower the EU on policy changes, will be used.

Eight European countries, including Britain, issued a joint statement warning Mr Trump that the tariff threat risked a “dangerous downward spiral” and expressing their solidarity with Denmark.

“As NATO members, we are determined on this issue” Strengthening Arctic security Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have expressed a common transatlantic interest.

“Tariff &NoBreak threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.”

The European Parliament also warned that ratification of the US-EU trade deal signed by Mr Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland last July would be paused.

These moves are the beginning of the EU’s efforts to counter Mr Trump’s attempt to seize Greenland. part of the Kingdom of DenmarkThrough economic pressure.

EU ambassadors will meet in Brussels for emergency talks on Sunday evening to discuss the bloc’s response.

Culture Minister Lisa Nandy told the BBC there needed to be a “grown-up conversation” with the US, while the UK has yet to signal how it might respond.

“Typically, with this particular U.S. administration, the president will express a very strong view. He will then encourage dialogue,” he added. Sir Keir Starmer’s potential response.

“Differences of opinion are welcomed and we will never hesitate to stand up for what we believe is right or to defend British interests. And there will often be negotiation.”

Shortly after Mr Trump threatened tariffs, the Prime Minister called the move “completely wrong” and said he would “pursue this issue directly” with the US administration.

His tone was much softer than some of his European counterparts, such as Mr Macron and the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, who insisted France would not bow to “intimidation”. “We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed”.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, said the Prime Minister’s reaction was alarmist.

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The duties will come into effect on February 1 and could rise to 25 percent on June 1 if Copenhagen does not agree to an American purchase of the Arctic island.

They will affect Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom.

Danish and Greenlandic officials have repeatedly maintained that the area is not for sale.

Eight European countries, all NATO allies, sent dozens of soldiers to Greenland. military exercise It was designed to address the US president’s concerns about the security of the island.

But the US president responded to these maneuvers with the threat of tariffs, and the EU is now considering its next move.

According to Bild newspaper, Germany withdrew 14 of its soldiers from Greenland after Trump threatened them without any explanation. The publication said it witnessed soldiers leaving via Iceland on Sunday, 44 hours after arriving.

The EU’s anti-coercion instrument was initially intended to act as a deterrent against China’s illiberal trade practices.

But the tool has emerged as the bloc’s main method of hitting America with trade restrictions in response to Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs to force policy change around the world.

In recent weeks, officials have subtly hinted that the US president’s threat to use trade tariffs to force Denmark to surrender Greenland would justify the use of the “bazooka.”

This could result in the bloc targeting American tech firms that pay too little tax to operate on the Continent despite making huge profits.

Duties on US exports

The EU’s trade deal with Trump last year was hailed as a geopolitical victory for Brussels, imposing a 15 percent tariff on US imports from the EU in return for the bloc promising not to tax American exports.

But Manfred Weber, the German chairman of the centre-right European People’s Party, said his colleagues would not vote in favor of the deal.

“The EPP is in favor of an EU-US trade deal, but given Donald Trump’s threats against Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage,” Mr Weber said.

“0 percent tariffs on US products should be suspended.”

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German socialist MP Bernd Lange, who serves as the chairman of the parliament’s trade committee, also defended the introduction of the “trade bazooka” while warning that the implementation of the agreement would be stopped.

Even the EU’s far-right leaders, who normally back Mr Trump’s bullying of the bloc’s pro-Brussels chiefs, moved to condemn the US president.

Jordan Bardella, President of the French National Convention, said: “Donald Trump’s threats against the sovereignty of a state, especially a European state, are unacceptable. Commercial blackmail can no longer be tolerated.”

“We call on the European Union to suspend the agreement signed last July, which committed our interests without a sufficient number of counterparties, which we condemned at the time.”

Alice Weidel, head of Germany’s AfD, said: “We have been loudly outraged for years about Putin’s violations of international law – now the same critics remain strangely silent when Trump does the very thing they criticize Putin for: violating the sovereignty of Venezuela and Greenland.”

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