The news has been non-stop in regards to the Greenland situation and the insistence by Donald Trump that the USA needs to acquire this semi-autonomous territory for national security reasons. His demands have been rejected by Greenland's leaders and by Denmark. Despite this obvious breach of international law, the President is continuing on his path, and threats have ensued including military action. On January 17, the USA president threatened new tariffs against 8 countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands should these countries not support the plan to buy Greenland. The reaction and comments from these countries has been solidly united against Trump's plan. EU leaders have quickly put together a summit and will meet on Thursday to discuss the situation and potential counter measures. The situation certainly threatens the status of the EU-US trade agreement and suspension of EU tariffs, and the EU has other tools that could be used to retaliate against USA actions. The strongest action by the EU would be to invoke the so called "Trade Bazooka", officially the EU Anti-Coercion Instrument, or ACI. The ACI would allow the EU to implement significant trade barriers against the USA. Other actions could include the imposition of retaliatory tariffs or cancellation of the EU-US trade agreement.
The tariff threat is currently set at 10% to be imposed on February 1, rising to 25% on June 1 and remaining in place until the purchase of Greenland is complete. These tariffs would be on top of the current tariffs in place, creating additional expense and hardship for USA importers.
The USWTA/US Wine Trade Alliance has summarized the situation in the attached message.
