- Emergency EU summit planned in Brussels for Thursday.
- Envoys push for diplomacy while preparing retaliatory measures.
- Growing calls to activate the unused EU ‘Anti-Coercion Instrument’.
European Union ambassadors reached a broad agreement on Sunday to step up efforts to deter US President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on European allies, while preparing retaliatory measures should the tariffs go ahead, EU diplomats said.
Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of escalating tariffs starting Feb. 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, a move that major EU states denounced as blackmail.
EU leaders will discuss options at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday. One option is a package of tariffs on 93 billion euros ($107.7 billion) of U.S. imports that could take effect automatically on Feb. 6 after a six-month suspension.
The other is the “Anti-Coercion Instrument” (ACI), so far never used, which could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activities or restrict trade in services, in which the United States has a surplus with the bloc, including digital services.
The tariff package appeared to gain broader support as a first response than the anti-coercion measures, the outlook for which was currently “very mixed”, according to an EU source.
Dialogue in Davos
European Council President Antonio Costa, who chairs EU summits, said in a social media post that his consultations with EU members had demonstrated their strong commitment to supporting Denmark and Greenland and their willingness to defend themselves against any form of coercion.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, during a visit to his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo, said Denmark would continue to focus on diplomacy, referring to an agreement Denmark, Greenland and the United States reached on Wednesday to establish a working group.
“The United States is also more than the president of the United States. I’ve just been there. There are also checks and balances in American society,” he added.
The EU’s dialogue efforts are likely to be a key topic at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Trump will deliver a keynote speech on Wednesday in his first appearance at the event in six years.
“All options are on the table, talks in Davos with the United States and leaders meeting afterwards,” an EU diplomat said in summarizing the EU plan.
The eight targeted countries, already subject to US tariffs of 10% and 15%, have sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland, as the dispute with the United States over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island intensifies.
“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” they said in a joint statement published on Sunday, adding that 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 encouraged by the constant messages from the rest of the continent, adding: “Europe will not be blackmailed.”
The tariff threat rattled global markets, with the euro and sterling falling against the dollar and a return to volatility expected.
Question marks over trade agreements with the US
A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said he was pushing for the ICA to be activated. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that while there should be no doubt that the EU would retaliate, it was “a little premature” to activate the as-yet-unused instrument.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, closer to the US president than other EU leaders, described Sunday’s tariff threat as “a mistake”, adding that she had spoken to Trump a few hours earlier and told him what she thought.
Asked how Britain would respond to the 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 start a war of words,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
However, the tariff threats call into question trade agreements the United States signed with Britain in May and the EU in July.
The limited deals have already faced criticism for their unbalanced nature, with the United States maintaining broad tariffs while its partners must eliminate import duties.
It looks like the European Parliament will suspend its work on the EU-US trade deal. A vote on scrapping many EU import duties was due on Jan. 26-27, but Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, the largest group in parliament, said late Saturday that approval was not possible for now.
German Christian Democrat lawmaker Juergen Hardt also raised what he told Bild newspaper could be a last resort “to make President Trump see reason on the Greenland issue,” a boycott of the soccer World Cup the United States is hosting this year.
