{"id":197460,"date":"2026-01-20T01:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trade-bazooka-considered-by-eu-as-trump-continues-greenland-threat-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T01:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:55:38","slug":"trade-bazooka-considered-by-eu-as-trump-continues-greenland-threat-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trade-bazooka-considered-by-eu-as-trump-continues-greenland-threat-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"'Trade bazooka' considered by EU as Trump continues Greenland threat – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Union ambassadors\u00a0have reached a broad agreement\u00a0to\u00a0intensify efforts to dissuade President Donald Trump<\/a> from imposing tariffs\u00a0on European allies while also preparing retaliatory measures should the American president follow through on his threats<\/a>.
The consideration, reached Jan. 18, comes as Trump announced that eight NATO countries will face a 10% tariff<\/a> on all goods sent to the United States, effective Feb. 1, until the United States is allowed to buy\u00a0Greenland, a step major EU states decried as blackmail. The tariff would increase to 25% on June 1 if a deal to purchase the region is not reached, Trump said.
French President Emmanuel Macron floated using the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument against the United States as part of numerous exchanges with European leaders, a diplomat told USA TODAY. The diplomat added that Macron reaffirmed to his counterparts the importance of a firm and coordinated European response.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that while there should be no doubt the\u00a0EU would retaliate<\/a>, it was “a bit premature” to activate the instrument.
In May 2025, the EU had said it would implement tariffs on $107 billion in U.S. imports in the wake of Trump’s sweeping announcement,<\/a> but suspended them for six months after the president and ambassadors reached a deal. Items covered under the proposed tariffs, according to Euronews<\/a>, targeted industries centered in Republican-leaning states, such as bourbon, airplane components, soybeans and poultry.
The EU has not ratified the deal, according to the Financial Times<\/a>, and lawmakers in Brussels signaled that the renewed threats to Greenland would scuttle its approval<\/a>.
The tariff package appeared to command broader support as a first response than\u00a0other anti-coercion\u00a0measures for which the picture was “very mixed,” Reuters reported, citing an EU source.
The eight NATO nations \u2013 including Denmark \u2013 called Trump’s\u00a0latest tariff move\u00a0“dangerous” to transatlantic relations in a joint statement. “Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” the countries said.
Here’s what to know about the European Union’s “trade bazooka.”
The European Union’s anti-coercion instrument<\/a>, also known as the “trade bazooka,” was adopted in 2023 to prevent and eliminate “situations of economic coercion,” according to the regulation’s text.
“It especially aims to deter the economic coercion of the Union or a Member State and to enable the Union, as a last resort, to counteract economic coercion through Union response measures,” the regulation reads.
The instrument was conceived to prevent “bullying” from China<\/a>, Politico Europe reported. Euronews reported, however, that it was designed to counter China and the United States<\/a> in wielding tariffs and natural resources to advance national interests.
The instrument allows the EU to curb or cease imports of goods and services into its market and put restrictions on foreign investment and intellectual property rights, among other retaliatory options.
The European Commission’s Q&A page on the instrument<\/a> notes that any action against a country must be “proportionate to the harm” caused.
“The range of potential measures is designed to be broad, in order to allow the selection and design of an effective and efficient response to an individual case of economic coercion with minimal or no impact on the EU economy,” the European Commission wrote.
Once a country is accused of coercion, the European Commission has up to four months to examine the allegation, according to the regulation’s text. After the investigation, a majority of EU members must agree to initiate it.
Once the instrument is activated, the EU negotiates with the accused country. If those negotiations fail, retaliatory measures can be taken.
The instrument has not been used since its adoption, according to the global news agency Agence France-Presse.
Invoking the anti-coercion instrument would cause major damage to the trading relationship between Europe and the United States and was considered a “nuclear option” to respond to Trump’s tariffs, according to Euronews.
Trade between the United States and the EU reached nearly $2 trillion in 2024, representing almost30% of global trade and 43% of global GDP, according to EU Council data.<\/a>
“The European Union and the United States have the\u00a0largest bilateral trade and investment relationship\u00a0and the most integrated economic relationship in the world,” the council writes.
The European Union is made up of 27 countries with a combined population of 450 million people, according to Agence France-Presse.<\/a>
Contributing: Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European Union ambassadors\u00a0have reached a broad agreement\u00a0to\u00a0intensify efforts to dissuade President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs\u00a0on European allies while also preparing retaliatory measures should the American president follow through on his threats.The consideration, reached Jan. 18, comes as Trump announced that eight NATO countries will face a 10% tariff on all goods sent to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-197460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}