Donald Trump has reversed his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he has agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. The president had vowed to impose 10% import duties from 1 February on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland over their support for Greenland’s status as an autonomous Danish territory, with plans to increase them to 25% from 1 June.
After a “very productive” meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte on Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would not proceed with the tariffs. He provided no further details of the supposed agreement, but said talks were continuing concerning a US missile defence shield partly based in Greenland. Speaking at the Davos economic forum, he described it as “a concept of a deal” that would be “very good for the United States, also for them”.
A Nato spokesperson said discussions among allies would focus on Arctic security, while Rutte cautioned that “there’s still a lot of work to be done”. Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, welcomed Trump’s signals that he would not use military force to seize Greenland, calling them “positive messages”. However, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, insisted that Nato had no mandate to negotiate on Greenland’s behalf, writing: “Nothing about us, without us.”
Sascha Faxe, a Danish MP, echoed this sentiment, saying the claimed deal was “not real” because Greenland was not party to the talks. Reports emerged that Nato military officers had discussed a compromise akin to UK bases in Cyprus, but Greenlandic and Danish politicians firmly rejected any external negotiation over the territory’s sovereignty or minerals.
