By Our Reporter
European leaders are signalling they are ready to face down US President Donald Trump after he threatened new tariffs over the deployment of European troops to Greenland, insisting the continent will not be bullied into submission. France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Europe would respond “in a united and coordinated manner” if the threats are carried out.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday, Macron dismissed the tariff warnings as unacceptable, stressing that intimidation would not sway Europe’s position. “No intimidation nor threat will influence us, neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else,” he said, underlining Europe’s resolve to stand firm.
The row traces back to Washington’s growing irritation over a small European military presence in Greenland, a strategically sensitive Arctic territory. Trump has reportedly framed the deployment as a provocation and responded by threatening additional tariffs on goods from several European countries.
According to The Economist, Trump views tariffs as a multipurpose weapon — a price for access to the American market, leverage to extract concessions, and punishment for perceived slights. But European capitals are no longer shocked by such tactics, having learned from Trump’s earlier trade wars.
European businesses, the magazine reports, have already war-gamed the impact of renewed tariffs since Trump’s return to office, adjusting supply chains, contracts, and distribution networks to blunt the shock. As a result, the latest threats are being treated more as a nuisance than a crisis.
Currently, EU exports to the United States face tariffs of about 15 percent, while British goods attract a 10 percent levy. Trump’s threat of an additional 10 percent duty on goods from the Nordic countries, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Britain would deepen the burden, but Europeans believe the damage will remain manageable if escalation is contained.
For now, the message from Europe is one of calm defiance: tariffs may sting, but they will not dictate European security or foreign policy — even when the pressure comes from Washington.