EU eyes €93 billion tariffs to counter Trump's Greenland threats

Monday 19 January 2026 - 08:20

European Union capitals are preparing to slap €93 billion ($108 billion) in retaliatory tariffs on the United States and curb American firms' access to the bloc's market. This bold response targets President Donald Trump's tariff threats against NATO allies resisting his push to buy Greenland outright. The move signals a sharp rupture in transatlantic ties, with EU leaders ditching what officials once called a policy of appeasement toward the Trump administration.

EU ambassadors gathered urgently in Brussels on Sunday to forge a unified strategy. Trump's Saturday announcement hit eight European nations: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland with escalating duties starting at 10% on February 1 and climbing to 25% by June 1. The penalty hinges on securing a deal for full Greenland acquisition. These countries had dispatched troops to the Danish-led Arctic exercise on the island that week.

French President Emmanuel Macron is championing the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument, a 2023 tool dubbed a "trade bazooka" that has yet to be unleashed. It could bar U.S. companies from EU public contracts, throttle service trade, and hit foreign investments plus financial markets. Bernd Lange, head of the European Parliament's international trade committee, urged swift activation, branding Trump's moves a dangerous new frontier in weaponizing tariffs for politics.

European lawmakers signal readiness to derail last summer's EU-U.S. trade pact, which capped most U.S. duties on European goods at 15% in exchange for the EU dropping industrial tariffs. That truce expires February 7 unless extended. Manfred Weber, leader of the Parliament's largest group, the European People's Party, declared approval impossible amid the Greenland standoff.

The targeted nations issued a joint statement decrying the tariffs as a blow to transatlantic bonds that could spark a perilous downward spiral. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke directly with Trump on Sunday, warning that penalizing NATO allies for upholding collective defense was misguided. Macron stood firm on France's Greenland deployment, insisting no bullying would sway Europe from Ukraine to the Arctic and beyond. EU officials are readying these countermeasures as leverage for high-stakes Davos talks this week.