Threats from the White House over Greenland have triggered outrage and urgent diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures including retaliatory tariffs and the unprecedented use of the European Union’s Anti-Coercion Instrument.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration would impose a 10% import tariff starting in February on goods from eight European countries opposing American control of Greenland. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would be affected, Trump said in a social media post written from his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump warned that the tariff would rise to 25% on June 1 if no agreement was reached for what he described as the “complete and total purchase of Greenland” by the United States.
European leaders from Dublin to Helsinki swiftly condemned the announcement as economic coercion and dispatched representatives to Brussels on Sunday for an emergency meeting. The response signaled a growing willingness among EU member states to deploy the bloc’s full economic weight should diplomacy fail.
“Our priority is to engage, not escalate. Sometimes the most responsible form of leadership is restraint,” European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said Monday. “However, the EU has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond should the threatened tariffs be imposed.”
According to Eurostat, trade in goods and services between the European Union and the United States reached 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, equivalent to roughly 4.6 billion euros per day, highlighting the scale of what is at stake.
Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other world leaders are traveling to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, though no meetings between Trump and EU leaders have yet been scheduled.
After Davos, the 27 leaders of the European Union will convene in Brussels on Thursday evening for an emergency summit focused on transatlantic relations.
European Council President António Costa said EU leaders agree that tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU–U.S. trade agreement. Leaders also expressed readiness to defend the bloc against any form of economic coercion.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking to reporters in Davos on Monday, said EU officials had been reaching out to Washington in the wake of Trump’s threat, noting that “there are a lot of inbounds.” Asked about possible European retaliation, Bessent said such a move “would be very unwise.”
Analysts say the EU faces a narrow and risky path forward. Penny Naas, senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund, said Europe must demonstrate resolve without provoking retaliation it is unwilling to absorb.
The EU has several economic tools it could deploy, including new retaliatory tariffs, suspension of the EU–U.S. trade agreement reached last year, and activation of the Anti-Coercion Instrument, often described as the bloc’s “trade bazooka,” which allows sanctions against individuals or institutions deemed to be exerting undue pressure on the EU.
The trade framework agreed in June was scheduled for ratification by the European Parliament this week, but Manfred Weber, leader of the Parliament’s largest political group, said Saturday that approval was “not possible at this stage.”
The European Union could also reinstate tariffs on U.S. goods worth 93 billion euros ($108 billion) that were suspended following the July agreement. Commission spokesperson Gill said that unless the suspension is extended, those levies would automatically take effect on February 7 if the United States follows through on its tariff threat.
Ireland’s Finance Minister Simon Harris urged restraint, warning against steps that could undo years of negotiations.
“This is a time for cool heads,” Harris said ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. “We worked extremely hard to secure a trade agreement that is good for Europe, good for the United States and good for Ireland. Any move away from that path could have very significant consequences.”
