Trump-Greenland latest: EU ‘prepares €93bn tariffs’ after US president’s threats to Nato allies

We can bring you more from the Financial Times report that the EU is preparing a batch of €93bn ($107.71bn) tariffs to land the US with.

The retaliation measures are being drawn up to give European leaders leverage in pivotal meetings with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the FT report said, citing officials involved in the preparations for the meetings in Switzerland.

European countries are searching for a compromise which will avoid a rupture in the Nato military alliance.

The list of tariffs was prepared last year but had been suspended until 6 February in order to avoid a trade war, the report said.

During a meeting of 27 EU ambassadors on Sunday, its reactivation was discussed. The diplomats also discussed using the anti-coercion instrument, which would limit American access to the EU market.

The EU is considering hitting the US with a set of tariffs worth €93bn after Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland on Saturday, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The bloc is also considering restricting US companies from its market in response to the threats, the report states.

A US trade representative said on Saturday it is up to Europe to decide whether it wants to raise Donald Trump’s new tariff threats during negotiations on a trade deal.

“If I were the Europeans I would probably try to silo this off if they can. If they want to make it an issue in the trade deal that’s really up to them and not us,” Jamieson Greer told reporters at the Detroit auto show.

Trump on Saturday vowed to hit some European allies with tariffs for opposing his over desire to take over Greenland.

Donald Trump’s desire for US control over Greenland stems from national security concerns, a US official has said.

“The President has a strong view that it’s a national security matter for the U.S. to have more control over Greenland,” said Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.

Hassett added that he is confident Trump will “negotiate a deal that’s great for us, and great for our partners”.

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew takes a look at Donald Trump’s fixation with Greenland:

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Sunday that he had spoken with US president Donald Trump about the security situation in Greenland and the Arctic.

“We will continue working on this, and I look forward to seeing him in Davos later this week,” Rutte wrote on social media platform X.

We’re still waiting to hear any updates form the meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels today.

We’ve been hearing from Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, during a visit to the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

He says European countries are trying to get Donald Trump to abandon the idea that he has to own Greenland, and that Denmark is pursuing a diplomatic end to this dispute.

An agreement has been made with vice president JD Vance about a diplomatic track to resolve the dispute, he added.

Copenhagen is under no doubt about the strength of the support from the EU, he said, adding that Denmark needs the EU to respond – but that he won’t comment on what the response should be.

The US, he adds, is more than just Donald Trump – there are checks and balances in place which could make a takeover of Greenland difficult.