EU states condemn Trump tariff threats, consider countermeasures

Major European Union states decried U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against European allies over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday, as France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.

Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the U.S. is allowed to buy Greenland.

All eight countries, already subject to U.S. tariffs of 10% and 15%, have sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland, as a row with the United States over the future of Denmark's vast Arctic island escalates.

"Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral," the eight-nations said in a joint statement published on Sunday.

They said the Danish exercise was designed to strengthen Arctic security and posed no threat to anyone. They said they were ready to engage in dialogue, based on principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written statement that she was pleased with the consistent messages from the rest of the continent, adding: "Europe will not be blackmailed", a view echoed by Germany's finance minister and Sweden's prime minister.

"It's blackmail what he's doing," Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on Dutch television of Trump's threat.

COORDINATED EUROPEAN RESPONSE

Cyprus, holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency, summoned ambassadors to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday, which diplomats said was due to start at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) as EU leaders stepped up contacts.

A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said he was pushing for activation of the "Anti-Coercion Instrument", which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the U.S. has a surplus with the bloc, including digital services.

Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament's trade committee, and Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, echoed Macron's call, as did Germany's engineering association.

Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that while there should be no doubt that the EU would retaliate, it was "a bit premature" to activate the anti-coercion instrument.

And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is closer to the U.S. President than some other EU leaders, described the tariff threat on Sunday as "a mistake", adding she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought. 

"He seemed interesting in listening," she told a briefing with reporters during a trip to Korea, adding she planned to call other European leaders later on Sunday. 

Italy has not sent troops to Greenland.

BRITAIN'S POSITION 'NON-NEGOTIABLE'

Asked how Britain would respond to new tariffs, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said allies needed to work with the United States to resolve the dispute.

"Our position on Greenland is non-negotiable ... It is in our collective interest to work together and not to start a war of words," she told Sky News on Sunday.

The tariff threats do though call into question trade deals the U.S. struck with Britain in May and the EU in July.

The limited agreements have already faced criticism about their lopsided nature, with the U.S. maintaining broad tariffs, while their partners are required to remove import duties.

The European Parliament looks likely now to suspend its work on the EU-U.S. trade deal. It had been due to vote on removing many EU import duties on January 26-27, but Manfred Weber, head of the European People's Party, the largest group in parliament, said late on Saturday that approval was not possible for now.

German Christian Democrat lawmaker Juergen Hardt also mooted what he told Bild newspaper could be a last resort "to bring President Trump to his senses on the Greenland issue", a boycott of the soccer World Cup that the U.S. is hosting this year.