BRUSSELS, Jan 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — EU leaders will meet Thursday evening for an emergency summit on threats by US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his push to take Greenland, a spokeswoman said Monday.
The crisis talks in Brussels come as the 27-nation bloc weighs potential countermeasures against the United States if Trump follows through on punishing some of Washington’s closest allies.
Trump shook Europe on Saturday when he vowed to slap EU members Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden — and non-members Britain and Norway — with extra levies unless Greenland is ceded to the United States.
Leaders from the 27-nation bloc will hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday evening to discuss their response to one of the gravest crises in years to hit transatlantic ties.
“Our priority is to engage, not escalate,” EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said. “Sometimes the most responsible form of leadership is restraint.”
Gill said engagement with the United States continued at all levels.
“We are trying to be calm, to be firm, to be serious, to be responsible, because that’s what, in our view, leadership looks like,” Gill told reporters.
But he added: “Should the threatened tariffs be imposed, the European Union has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond.”
The EU is considering different responses if Trump does not back down, including putting the current tariff deal agreed last year with the United States on hold.
Second, European tariffs on imports worth 93 billion euros ($108 billion) from the United States, currently suspended until early February, could come into force.
The third response if the situation does not change would include an array of tools, including the “anti-coercion instrument” known as the “bazooka”.
Aides to French President Emmanuel Macron said he would ask the EU to activate the never-before-used tool against Washington if Trump makes good on his threat.
“People ask me, is the anti-coercion instrument back on the table? It was never off the table,” Gill said. — NNN-AGENCIES