Trump has abandoned his threat to impose tariffs on the European countries most vocally opposed to his threat to seize Greenland. At the same time, he mentioned some “agreement” on the island. The US President said the “framework” of this agreement is being developed after a “very productive” meeting with the NATO Secretary General.
Donald Trump has backed off his threat to impose high US tariffs on eight European countries, saying he has agreed on a “framework for a future deal” on Greenland, The Guardian writes.
Four days after the US president promised to impose high import tariffs on some US satellites over their support for maintaining Greenland's status as an autonomous Danish territory, Trump backed down.
After all, the US will not impose 10% tariffs on February 1 on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Finland, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth. Last weekend, he also threatened to increase taxes to 25% from June 1, The Guardian recalls. The threat sparked widespread concern, criticism from senior European politicians who said they would “not allow themselves to be blackmailed” and warnings from economists.
After a “very productive” meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, Trump said he had laid out the “framework” for the Greenland deal, without providing further information.
“Based on this understanding, I will not impose the tariffs scheduled to take effect on February 1,” the mercurial US president promised.
Mr. Trump did not provide further details about the agreement but said negotiations were ongoing on a US missile defense shield that would be partly based in Greenland.
He said at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland that the deal would last “forever”.
“We have an idea for a deal. I think it would be a very good deal for the United States and for them,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with CNBC, a financial news channel. “It's a bit complicated, but we'll explain further.”
“Discussions among NATO allies on the framework mentioned by the President will focus on ensuring security in the Arctic through the collective efforts of allies, especially the seven Arctic allies,” NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said.
Who's talking about what, and the bad guy, as you know, is about the bathroom. Therefore, the representative of the North Atlantic block added: “Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the US will continue, to ensure that Russia and China will never be able to gain a foothold – neither economically nor militarily – in Greenland.”
However, NATO Secretary General Rutte appeared cautious.
“I think today's meeting was very good,” he told AFP. “But there's still a lot of work to be done.”
The Danish Foreign Minister said Trump sent a positive signal when he said he would not use force to occupy Greenland.
“Trump has said he will pause the trade war. He said: 'I will not attack Greenland'. These are positive signals,” Lars Lekke Rasmussen said in an interview with Danish public broadcaster DR.
At a NATO meeting on Wednesday, military officials from members of the transatlantic alliance discussed a compromise that would return sovereignty to the United States over small enclaves in Greenland, the New York Times reported, citing three unnamed senior officials. Two officials compared the proposal to British military bases in Cyprus, which is considered British territory.
Aja Chemnitz Larsen, the Danish member of parliament responsible for Greenland, wrote on social media Wednesday night that despite Trump's announcement of a deal for her homeland with NATO, the military alliance has no authority to conduct any negotiations on Greenland.
“Nothing about us without us,” she wrote.
Amid rumors that Trump and Rutte may have discussed a mining deal in Davos, Chemnitz Larsen called the idea that NATO should say anything about Greenland's sovereignty or minerals “absolutely unbelievable.”
Hours before the tariff cuts, in a fiery speech in Davos, Trump said the US would not use force to take Greenland, but emphasized that he still planned to use his country's economic and diplomatic might to get it and praised the benefits of US tariffs.
“You all participated in them, and in some cases, became victims of them,” he told delegates gathered from around the world. “But in the end it's fair and most of you understand that.”
However, the US President has repeatedly backed away from his most extreme tariff threats – most notably last spring, when he welcomed the beginning of a new era for the US economy, only to delay a major wave of tariffs, The Guardian recalls.
Concerns about Trump's aggressive trade strategy are not only international but also domestic. His tariffs have repeatedly raised concerns for the US economy. Wall Street had its worst day since October on Tuesday, the first day of trading since Trump threatened NATO allies with tariffs over Greenland.
The US President paid close attention to developments in the stock market and mentioned them several times in his speech on Wednesday. He noted the fact that they had achieved a series of record highs since he returned to office, but admitted that they had slipped this week “because of Iceland,” an apparent reference to his push on Greenland.
Trump's recent obsession with Greenland following US aggression against Venezuela has alarmed global policymakers in recent weeks. Trump argued that Denmark owes Greenland to the United States because Americans helped defend the island territory during World War II and the United States needs the territory for national security purposes.
In his speech at Davos, Mr. Trump said the US would not use force to occupy Greenland but demanded “immediate negotiations”.
“We want an ice cap to protect the world, but they don't provide it,” Trump said. “We never asked for anything else.”
His decision to lift the threat of new tariffs came hours after the European Parliament indefinitely suspended ratification of the US-EU tariff deal last summer, signaling that politicians in satellite countries for the first time appeared ready to stand up to Trump.
