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Europe must not appease Trump on Greenland - Gideon Rachman - FT

Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland raised the once unthinkable prospect that the US could use its military to seize territory from Denmark — a Nato ally. Several European nations responded by dispatching troops to the island — ostensibly as part of an exercise to bolster Arctic security. Trump’s counter reaction was to accuse the European nations involved — which include France, Germany and the UK — of playing a “very dangerous game”. 

The US president has said that all these countries will be hit with tariffs of 10 per cent at the beginning of February, rising to 25 per cent in June. So what happens now? A wide range of outcomes is conceivable. At the more benign end, it is possible that Trump’s tariff threats will disappear into the mist. The US president has made empty tariff threats before — including a promise to impose 100 per cent levies on films made outside America and a 200 per cent tariff on champagne. Just last week, he was threatening to impose a 25 per cent tariff on any country that trades with Iran. But there has been little discernible follow up on that so far. 

Europe must not appease Trump on Greenland

 

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