Overview
- President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 10% on goods from eight European countries starting February 1, potentially rising to 25% on June 1 unless the United States secures full control of Greenland.
- After EU ambassadors met in Brussels, European Council President António Costa convened an extraordinary leaders’ summit expected Thursday to coordinate a common line.
- France is pushing to use the EU’s never‑used anti‑coercion instrument if tariffs take effect, with Economy Minister Roland Lescure in Berlin to press Germany as his counterpart Lars Klingbeil vowed concerted countermeasures.
- Officials are weighing reactivation of roughly €93 billion in suspended retaliatory tariffs and other measures from the EU’s trade‑defense toolbox, while seeking to deter escalation.
- Leading groups in the European Parliament signaled they will withhold ratification of last summer’s US‑EU trade deal, and European markets fell with Paris, Frankfurt and Milan opening lower after the threats, as Trump’s letter to Norway reaffirmed his Greenland demand and declared he no longer feels obliged to think only of peace.