European powers will not be blackmailed, and there will be a clear and united response to U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of higher tariffs over Greenland, the German and French finance ministers said on Monday.
Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on imports from European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, intensifying a dispute over the future of Denmark's vast Arctic island.
His threats have prompted the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.
"Germany and France agree: We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed," German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at his ministry, where he met with his French counterpart.
"Blackmail between allies of 250 years, blackmail between friends, is obviously unacceptable," French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said at the same event.
The dispute has plunged trade relations between the EU and the U.S., the bloc's biggest export market, into renewed uncertainty after the two sides painstakingly reached a trade deal last year in response to Trump's swingeing tariffs.
Trump vowed on Saturday to impose levies of up to 25% from Feb. 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, unless the Danish territory is ceded to the United States.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday ruled out retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., saying "a trade war is in nobody's interest and my job is always to act in the U.K.'s national interest."
Separately, the European Union's trade spokesperson Olof Gill said the bloc wants to engage with the U.S., but is ready to act if needed.
"Our priority is to engage, not escalate," Gill said, but he added: "Should the threatened tariffs be imposed, the European Union has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond."
Germany said it is determined to respond to further U.S. tariffs with effective countermeasures, warning that Trump's threats are unacceptable and risk escalating the trade conflict.
"We are determined to respond with effective countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs. We will also prepare further economic policy measures if necessary, and if so, as early as February," a German government spokesperson said.
"There is a broad consensus among the member states of the European Union on this. It is important that the European Union now presents a united front on this issue," the spokesperson said in Berlin.
Anti-coercion instrument on table
EU leaders are set to discuss options at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday. One option is a package of tariffs on 93 billion euros ($107.7 billion) of U.S. imports that could automatically kick in on Feb. 6 after a six-month suspension.
"We Europeans must make it clear: The limit has been reached," Klingbeil said. "Our hand is extended, but we are not prepared to be blackmailed."
The other option is the so far untested "Anti-Coercion Instrument," which could limit access to public tenders, investments, or banking activity or restrict trade in services, in which the U.S. has a surplus with the bloc, including in digital services.
Lescure said that although the EU's anti-coercion instrument was above all a deterrent, it should be considered in the current circumstances.
"France wants us to examine this possibility, hoping, of course, that deterrence will prevail," Lescure said. He added that he hoped the transatlantic relationship would return to being "friendly and based on negotiation rather than a relationship based on threats and blackmail."
Klingbeil said he was not interested in escalation, as it would come at the expense of economies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Europe is 'not weak'
Klingbeil and Lescure's U.S. counterpart, Scott Bessent, said on Sunday that European "weakness" necessitated U.S. control of Greenland for global stability.
"Our objective in the coming days, weeks, quarters and years is to politely but firmly convince Scott Bessent that he is wrong," Lescure said.
Lescure said Europe needed to adopt reforms to boost its technological edge and productivity in order to prove that Europe was indeed strong.
Klingbeil said that with 27 European countries and 450 million citizens, the EU must develop strength – economically, in security policy, and politically – so that no one would even suspect Europe is weak.
"What I expect from us as Europeans is that on a question that concerns the integrity and sovereignty of a country, we very clearly put up a stop sign and say: We are not going down this road," Klingbeil said.