The European Union will suspend a trade deal framework with the United States in response to the Trump administration’s campaign to annex Greenland.
Bloc members voted during a session of the European Parliament on Wednesday to indefinitely suspend the pact, which was formalized in Turnberry, Scotland, in August.
Under the terms of the framework deal, the U.S. would have limited tariffs on EU imports at 15% while the bloc would remove levies on U.S. industrial products and provide preferential market access to a range of U.S. food exports. Additionally, the deal called for the U.S. to levy a 15% tariff on EU cars and auto parts, with the countries also agreeing to cooperate on automobile standards.
Wednesday’s vote came days after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post he would place new tariffs on six EU nations (Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland), as well as the U.K. and Norway, until a deal was reached for the U.S. to acquire Greenland. Trump said the 10% tariff would begin Feb. 1 and increase to 25% in June, although official documentation has not been published.
“We have been left with no alternative but to suspend work on the two Turnberry legislative proposals until the US decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation, and before any further steps are taken,” Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, said in a statement. Lange later clarified during a press conference there was no timeline for when the EU would reengage in efforts to put the framework deal into effect.
Beyond putting the pact on hold, Lange said the EU is also considering additional countermeasures to Trump’s actions, including installing retaliatory tariffs it first announced and later paused last year and implementing the Anti-Coercion Instrument.
The trade tool, which went into force in 2023, provides a formalized process for the EU to respond to attempts by non-bloc members to influence policy using economic pressure. The EU’s International Trade Committee will vote on whether to use the instrument on Monday, according to Lange.
As for retaliatory duties, Lange said if Trump goes through with enacting his latest tariff threat on Feb. 1, the EU would set its long-paused countermeasures into force.
Trump threatened the fresh levies as he continues to push to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark despite significant resistance from the country and the EU at large.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum on Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Trump’s proposed tariffs a “mistake” between long-standing allies while asserting the sovereignty of Greenland is “non-negotiable.”
“The EU and US have agreed to a trade deal last July. And in politics as in business, a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something,” von der Leyen said.
