Donald Trump’s threat to impose fresh tariffs on eight European countries – UK, Norway and six EU member states – is a wrecking ball to the carefully stitched deals he concluded with those countries last summer.
It also disregards the fact that individual member states do not have individual trade deals with the US. All EU international trade deals are conducted centrally through Brussels, as was the case with last summer’s deal.
A spokesperson for the European Council said on Saturday evening they were coordinating a joint response to Trump’s latest missive, but the Swedish prime minister has already rejected the US president’s threats. Ulf Kristersson said that “only Denmark and Greenland decide questions that concern them”.
The UK’s trade deal, as it was described last May, is in fact a thin tariff deal on a limited number of products – cars, beef, aerospace, ethanol and steel – with a 10% tariff deal on other exports ranging from salmon to bone china.
The EU’s deal is broader but also has a carve-out for cars and a 15% all-inclusive deal on most other products including wine and spirits.
Businesses have been forced to absorb the 10% tariff or pass it on to US customers. A further 10% tariff on top of the existing tariffs will hit US consumers even harder.
The latest threat will be seen as another attempt by a man – sometimes ally, sometimes adversary – desperate to win an argument, using one of his favourite weapons. It will also be seen as an attempt to divide Europe and quash their opposition to his Greenland takeover ambition.
Both the EU and the UK are in the middle of sensitive negotiations to reduce tariffs he has already imposed, particularly on steel, which are rated at 25% for British exports and 50% for EU products.
Saturday’s threat underlines the unstable nature of any deal with Trump.
Late last year the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, warned there would no deal on reducing steel tariffs unless the EU rolled back on tech laws. This is despite the EU and the US’s common interest in forming a club to fight cheaper Chinese imports.
The EU has consistently pushed back on any attempt to link tech with tariffs, and in particular to revise a €120m fine on Elon Musk’s X. It is unlikely to do anything other than issue a further statement on Saturday reiterating its right and strong intention to defend its sovereignty.
Mikkel Runge Olesen, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said Trump’s latest threat was a sign that Europe’s opposition to his threat to takeover Greenland was working.
“I think it is a reaction to the European troops going to Greenland, because if you look at the tariffs they match the countries who sent troops,” he told Sky News.
“We are never going to see American troops on the ground in Greenland, this is a negotiating tactic.”
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