The European Parliament has put the brakes on a major transatlantic trade agreement after US President Donald Trump announced fresh tariffs on European Union countries, linking the move to his controversial push to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
The decision throws last year’s fragile trade truce into uncertainty. The US–EU deal, signed in July by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was aimed at cooling tensions by capping US tariffs on EU goods at 15 per cent, while the bloc agreed to drop duties on a range of American exports.
That understanding has now been shaken. Trump this week unveiled an additional 10 per cent tariff on European nations that sent troops as part of a small deployment to Greenland. He warned the levy would rise to 25 per cent from June 1 and remain in force “until a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland”.
European leaders rejected any suggestion that the deployment was meant to provoke Washington, saying it followed Trump’s own warnings about growing Russian and Chinese activity in the North Atlantic region.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the EU would deliver a “joint response” if the tariffs remain in place.
Inside the European Parliament, political groups moved quickly to halt ratification of the trade pact. Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, said lawmakers could not support an agreement while trade measures were being used as leverage over Greenland.
“The EPP supports an EU–US trade deal, but under the current circumstances approval is not possible. Zero-tariff treatment for US products has to be paused,” Weber said in a post on X.
Siegfried Murean, a Member of the European Parliament closely involved in the negotiations, said approval had been imminent before relations took a sharp turn. The July agreement was designed to eventually reduce EU tariffs on American imports to zero.
“We were meant to ratify the EU-US trade deal very soon. Given the new context, that decision will have to wait,” he wrote.
Some lawmakers called for a tougher response. Karin Karlsbro, Renew Europe’s coordinator on trade, said the Parliament would not give the green light this week and urged Brussels to prepare counter-measures.
“I see no possibility for the European Parliament to move forward with the tariff agreement when we take a decision on Wednesday,” Karlsbro told Politico. “Instead, the EU must prepare to respond to President Trump’s tariff attacks, including those targeting Sweden.”
She warned that Brussels could resort to retaliatory tariffs or even deploy its so-called “bazooka” if pressure continues.
Formally known as the Anti-Coercion Instrument, the tool allows the EU to impose restrictions on investment, public procurement and intellectual-property protections against countries it believes are using economic pressure to extract concessions.
With tariffs now openly tied to Trump’s Greenland push, EU lawmakers say a deal intended to stabilise trade relations risks becoming yet another casualty of an escalating trade confrontation.