The UK’s Financial Times reported on the 18th that multiple EU countries are considering imposing tariffs on €93 billion (about RM437.4 billion) worth of US exports to Europe, or restricting US companies’ access to the EU market, as retaliation against President Trump for applying tariffs on eight European countries in order to obtain Greenland.
The report said this tariff list was drafted as early as last year, but was postponed to avoid an all-out trade war between Europe and the US, with the suspension valid until February 6. On the 18th, permanent representatives from the 27 EU member states met at the EU headquarters to discuss whether to reactivate this list, and also considered whether to employ counter-coercion tools.
Some officials involved in preparing the countermeasures said the purpose of these actions is to give European leaders bargaining chips ahead of their meeting with Trump at the upcoming World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
These officials said the European side hopes to wait until February 1 to see if the US will actually impose the tariffs before deciding whether to retaliate. By first presenting a threat of retaliation, Europe hopes to create cross-party domestic pressure in the US to force Trump to withdraw the tariff decision.
An unnamed European diplomat said Trump “is using purely mafia-like tactics,” but the EU hopes to publicly call for calm and give Trump an “off-ramp.”
Another European official remarked, “The current situation no longer allows for compromise, as it is impossible for us to hand over Greenland. Rational Americans also know that he (Trump) has just opened Pandora’s box.”