Jan. 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would not impose new tariffs on eight countries in Europe because they opposed his plan to annex Greenland.
Trump had said Saturday he would add 1% to 25% tariffs on those countries unless they allowed him to take the Danish territory.
“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st,” he said.
Just before his announcement, the European Union’s parliament paused a vote on the trade deal that Trump negotiated with the bloc last summer. EU leaders were planning an emergency summit Thursday to work on a response to the threats.
Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that he will not use force to annex Greenland but warned that if he did, the United States could not be stopped.
Trump’s comments on his ongoing pursuit of acquiring Greenland did not completely rule out escalation, though he referred to Iceland instead of Greenland at several points.
“We never asked for anything and we never got anything,” Trump said. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that.”
In Trump’s speech and responses during a Q&A with WEF President Borge Brende, he said inflation has been “defeated,” alleged protesters in Minnesota are “paid agitators” and suggested Europe is “not heading in the right direction.”
“People are doing very well,” Trump said. “They’re very happy with me.”
The president referred to the United States as the “economic engine” that all of Europe follows either up or down.
“In recent decades, it became the conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration and endless foreign imports,” Trump said. “The consensus was that so-called dirty jobs and heavy industry should be sent elsewhere. That affordable energy should be replaced by the green new scam and that countries could be propped up by importing new and entirely different populations from far-away lands.”
Minnesota and immigration were a particular focus of Trump on Wednesday. He referred to Somalis, which Minnesota has the largest population of in the United States, as “low IQ people.” He used this as an example of the harm he believes immigration brings.
“The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass import foreign cultures,” he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg before heading to Davos herself, calling Trump’s threat of tariffs “simply wrong” because Europe agreed with the United States on the need to ensure the security of the Arctic.
Von der Leyen said that while Europe preferred to talk out differences, it was “fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination,” adding that leaders of EU nations would meet in Brussels to discuss their response at an emergency session of the European Council on Thursday.
Her comments came as the European Parliament was set to announce Wednesday that it was pausing ratification of a tariffs and trade deal with the United States inked in July because it was unlikely to pass.
Without the deal, $109 billion of U.S. exports to the EU will be subject to tariffs starting Feb. 7.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the forum in Davos on Tuesday that the EU must not fall prey to “the law of the strongest” and that it should hold out against what he said was a new type of colonialism, citing lopsided U.S. trade deals and an “endless accumulation” of new tariffs that become even less acceptable when used as leverage to alter borders.
Macron also levelled similar accusations at China, saying its “massive excess capacity and distortive practices threaten to overwhelm entire industrial and commercial sectors.”
“We prefer respect to bullies, we prefer science to conspiracies, and we prefer the rule of law to brutality,” said Macron, who is among those advocating deployment of a so-called “trade bazooka” that was created with China in mind when it was floated in 2023.
A deterrent against bids by global powers to strongarm the EU or member nations into policy shifts, the Anti-Coercion Instrument allows Europe to respond with counter-tariffs, restrict access to the Single Market, block bids for EU contracts, as well as target intellectual property rights and investment.
German officials told Politico that Berlin would ask the European Commission to look at the ACI option when EU leaders meet Thursday in Brussels, however, the outcome was being seen as dependent on what Trump says in his address Wednesday and the result of talks on the sidelines of the forum.
Speaking before departing Washington at a news conference to mark his first year in office, Trump initially ramped up his rhetoric, warning he was prepared to do whatever it took to acquire Greenland, before switching to diplomacy mode, saying he was confident he would be able to find a solution acceptable to both sides.
“I think something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good for everybody. … I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes, we need it for national security and even world security. It’s very important,” Trump said.