EU trade ‘bazooka’ back on the table, as Greenland tariff threat blows up US deal
> Fresh US tariff threats have thrown EU-US trade relations back into chaos – reigniting calls in Brussels for retaliation and jeopardising last summer’s pact with Washington.
> In a déjà vu moment from last year, when Brussels scrambled to salvage a deal as the White House repeatedly floated tariffs of up to 30% on EU products, the bloc is now looking at new duties of up to 25% targeted at eight countries that deployed troops to Greenland.
> It remains unclear whether the new tariffs would stack on top of the existing 15% levy on most EU goods. Steel and aluminium already face duties of up to 50%. But senior voices across the bloc are already pushing for a hard response.
> An Élysée spokesperson said on Sunday that President Emmanuel Macron will ask the EU to activate its Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) – dubbed the bloc’s trade “bazooka” – if new US tariffs materialise.
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... show moreEU trade ‘bazooka’ back on the table, as Greenland tariff threat blows up US deal
> Fresh US tariff threats have thrown EU-US trade relations back into chaos – reigniting calls in Brussels for retaliation and jeopardising last summer’s pact with Washington.
> In a déjà vu moment from last year, when Brussels scrambled to salvage a deal as the White House repeatedly floated tariffs of up to 30% on EU products, the bloc is now looking at new duties of up to 25% targeted at eight countries that deployed troops to Greenland.
> It remains unclear whether the new tariffs would stack on top of the existing 15% levy on most EU goods. Steel and aluminium already face duties of up to 50%. But senior voices across the bloc are already pushing for a hard response.
> An Élysée spokesperson said on Sunday that President Emmanuel Macron will ask the EU to activate its Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) – dubbed the bloc’s trade “bazooka” – if new US tariffs materialise.
> A similar message came from Valérie Hayer, leader of the European Parliament’s centrist Renew group, in a letter sent to Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday afternoon. “The EU Anti-Coercion Instrument should be actively prepared, as it was designed precisely to respond to situations of economic intimidation of this nature,” the letter reads.
> German MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s trade committee, told Euractiv that the ACI was designed for precisely this scenario: when the US uses trade “as an instrument for political pressure”.
> “This is exactly what ACI was created for,” he added.
> EU ambassadors are meeting at 17:00 on Sunday to discuss the next steps on US trade relations.
euractiv.com/news/eu-trade-baz… #ACI #EU #Germany #Denmark #Greenland #France #MAGA #US #DonaldTrump #NATO
