Trump’s tariff threat is an attempt to divide Europe and quash opposition over Greenland | Greenland
Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on eight European countries – Britain, Norway and six EU member states – is undermining deals carefully sewn up with these countries last summer.
It also ignores the fact that individual member states do not have individual trade agreements with the United States. All of the EU’s international trade agreements are conducted centrally through Brussels, as was the case with last summer’s agreement.
A spokesman for the European Council said on Saturday evening that they were coordinating a joint response to Trump’s latest letter, but the Swedish prime minister has already rejected the US president’s threats. Ulf Kristersson said that “only Denmark and Greenland decide the issues that concern them.”
The UK’s trade deal, as announced last May, is essentially a thin tariff agreement on a limited number of products – cars, beef, aviation, ethanol and steel – with a 10% tariff deal on other exports, from salmon to bone china.
The EU’s deal is broader but also has separate regulation for cars, and there is a 15% all-in deal on most other products, including wine and spirits.
Businesses were forced to impose the 10 percent tariff or pass it on to U.S. customers. Another 10% tariff, in addition to existing tariffs, will further strain US consumers.
The latest threat will be seen as another attempt by a man who is sometimes an ally, sometimes an enemy, to win an argument using one of his favorite weapons. This will also be seen as an attempt to eliminate opposition to his ambition to divide Europe and seize Greenland.
Both the EU and the UK are in the midst of sensitive negotiations to reduce the tariffs it currently imposes, particularly on steel, which is rated at 25% for UK exports and 50% for EU products.
Saturday’s threat underscores the precarious nature of any deal with Trump.
Late last year, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned that there would be no deal to reduce steel tariffs unless the EU backed down on technology laws. This happened despite the shared interest of the EU and the US in forming a club to combat cheap Chinese imports.
The EU has consistently rebuffed any attempt to link technology to tariffs, and in particular to revise the €120 million fine imposed on Elon Musk’s X. He is unlikely to do anything other than make another statement on Saturday reiterating his rightful and strong intention to defend his sovereignty.
Mikkel Runge Olesen, senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, said Trump’s latest threat was a sign that European opposition to the threat to seize Greenland was working.
“I think it’s a reaction to European troops going to Greenland, because if you look at the tariffs I think they’re the same as the countries sending troops,” he told Sky News.
“We will never see American soldiers in Greenland, this is a negotiation tactic.”
