The EU is fed up with Trump's bullying. He takes out a “trade bazooka”
Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on countries that expressed support for Greenland [w jej sporze z USA]is bringing transatlantic relations to a critical point. EU leaders are seriously considering measures of retaliation against Washington, which until now were completely unthinkable.
Even at the height of these tensions, however, EU leaders refrained from taking retaliatory action, arguing that the risk of the United States withdrawing from NATO was greater than that of any unfavorable trade agreement. However, the situation has changed.
Trump is increasingly increasing his claims against Greenland, which led to protests on the streets of Nuuk and Copenhagen over the weekend. This brings European leaders to face increasingly louder calls to abandon a soft approach and prepare for confrontation. The fact that Trump threatened to impose tariffs on selected countries just after the EU signed an important trade agreement with Latin American countries only deepens the determination of some Europeans to act.
“I am convinced that we cannot give up,” says Jeremie Gallon, a former French diplomat and now senior managing director at McLarty Associates, an international consulting firm based in Washington. — Resisting this new attempt at humiliation and subjugation is the only way Europe can finally reaffirm its position as a geopolitical entity, he adds.
One of the options considered by centrist and left-wing politicians is Europe's use of the Anti-Coercion Instrument [formalnie znanego jako Rozporządzenie o Ochronie przed Przymusem Ekonomicznym, Anti-Coercion Instrument — ACI]the so-called EU trade bazooka. It is a powerful tool of trade retaliation. It was originally intended to serve as a response to aggression and threats from China. It allows Europe to impose tariffs and investment limits on countries that violate the rules.
“The EU should be prepared to take targeted and proportionate countermeasures,” Valerie Hayer, president of the centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, wrote on X on Saturday evening. “The launch of the EU Anti-Coercion Instrument should be considered because it was designed specifically for situations of this type of economic intimidation,” she added.
To Trump's statement about imposing tariffs on selected countries, including: France, also commented by its president Emmanuel Macron, who belongs to the same grouping in the European Parliament as Hayer. He did not directly support her call but suggested retaliatory action, saying Europeans “will respond in a united and coordinated way if [cła Trumpa] will be approved.”
The European Parliament is now ready to take action, including: to block the ratification of the trade agreement concluded between the EU and the US last summer. European People's Party leader Manfred Weber said on Saturday that it was “not possible at this stage” to approve the deal.
However, launching the Anti-Coercion Instrument would be a much more serious step. This would be the use of a tool originally intended for hostile countries against the EU's greatest ally and NATO's main benefactor. The fact that European leaders are openly discussing such a solution — in the context of deploying European troops in Greenland — shows how seriously Europeans take Trump's claims about an island that has been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for hundreds of years.
“If Europe wants to finally regain the respect of its citizens and the rest of the world, it has no other choice,” Gallon adds.
Keep calm and move on
Still, export-oriented European countries may be concerned prospects of triggering an open trade dispute with the United Statesand in the outskirts of Greenland, an island of 57,000. inhabitants, which in 1985 voted to leave the European Community, the predecessor of the EU.
On Saturday, Maros Sefcovic, the EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, told Deutsche Welle that approving a trade agreement between the EU and the United States in light of current tensions would be “very complicated.” However, he did not mention the use of the Anti-Coercion Instrument.
– I just want to emphasize that this one [umowa handlowa z Mercosurem] should help us offset the negative effects of the tariff increases imposed by the United States, he said. He added that new US tariffs could trigger a “very dangerous downward spiral” that EU leaders should “simply avoid.”
An emergency meeting of European ambassadors is scheduled to take place on Sunday to discuss a joint response to Trump's latest tariffs. One EU official told POLITICO that the willingness to escalate the conflict in this way would likely be much less in capitals than in the European Parliament, where politicians are subject to pressure from voters.
Ambassadors “will have a completely different approach,” an EU official said anonymously. — It is rare for the European Parliament and the Council to come together [Europejska] were in complete agreement, especially on a matter like this.
EU leaders discussed Europe's strategy in response to Trump's threats against Greenland, among others. on Sunday early morning. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and their top advisers were then returning to Brussels from Latin America, where they had signed a trade agreement with Mercosur.
When planning next steps, leaders are likely to be guided by the European Union's long-term economic and security interests, namely maintaining NATO while building Europe's capacity for self-sufficiency in defense in the medium term. In line with this approach, Ursula von der Leyen announced a new security strategy for the European Union last week. This week, Brussels is also expected to present new plans to strengthen its cybersecurity.
However, even the most optimistic observers of relations between the EU and the United States admit that the current situation is unprecedented and full of threats to the transatlantic alliance.
“It's a terrifying time,” an EU official said anonymously. — We have to stay calm and move on.
