U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday suggested that President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against eight European countries could be an attempt to “set the scene” for negotiations in his pursuit of Danish territory Greenland.
“That's possible,” Greer said at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. “Something he's talked about. I think he's very clear on what he expects on that front.”
European leaders hope to use the summit, typically a confab for economic elites, to persuade Trump to abandon his threats to take over Greenland — a longtime fixation of Trump’s as he seeks to bolster U.S. defenses in the Arctic and to cement his presidential legacy with the largest land purchase in American history. Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday day thathe was imposing a 10 percent duty on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland effective Feb. 1, “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.” The tariff will rise to 25 percent on June 1, Trump added.
Greer acknowledged that the tariff threat could be a negotiating tactic, in the same vein as recent declarations that he will impose a 25 percent “secondary” duty on countries that trade with Iran, or increase tariffs on neighboring Canada over a World Series television ad. The Trump administration has yet to issue the official paperwork to follow through on either of those pledges, nor has it issued an order to impose the Greenland tariffs.
Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday in Davos, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged European leaders to “take a deep breath,” and compared Trump’s threat with Trump’s April “liberation day” tariff announcement that set the U.S. on a spree of trade negotiations.
European leaders, however, are openly considering options for retaliation, should the U.S. follow through with the tariffs. Following Trump’s Saturday social media post, members of the European Parliament announced they would not move forward with a scheduled vote to lower tariffs on U.S. products — an action the 27-member bloc agreed to as part of a preliminary trade deal reached this summer that set U.S. duties on major categories of EU imports at 15 percent. And it is also weighing a package of retaliatory tariffs on around $110 billion worth of U.S. goods, as well as activating an EU law that allows the bloc to punish countries that attempt economic coercion, including through taxes on digital services, a sore spot between the U.S. and Europe.
Greer urged Europe to “compartmentalize” Trump’s demands on Greenland from the broader trade discussion, and dismissed the EU’s decision to delay its vote lowering tariffs on U.S. goods.
“Europe has done nothing to implement the trade deal. Nothing.” Greer said. “Europeans have not lowered a single tariff for us. They have their process, I understand they have their process. My point is the action doesn’t change the status quo of outcomes.”
In his speech, Greer also cast Trump’s disruptive use of tariffs as a return to a “pragmatic trade policy” that he said had its roots in the ideas of Alexander Hamilton dating back to the United States’ founding.
He also called on countries to follow the U.S. lead by forging a new international trading system that “builds in the flexibilities to address economic vulnerabilities, to prevent exposure to economic coercion and to unlock productivity gains in our domestic markets,” Greer said.
“Most importantly, such a system must address structural imbalances head-on and make long-term balance a cornerstone of international economic policy. I think it's important for all of us, not just the United States,” Greer said.
That seemed to be a reference to China, which recently reported a record trade surplus last year of $1.2 trillion last year. That almost perfectly mirrors the United States, whose trade deficit wasclose to $1.2 trillion in 2025, final figures released in February are expected to show.
“A country that is structurally exporting more than it is importing likely is harming the rest of the world just to fuel its own growth,” Greer said, invoking the names of the influential British economist John Maynard Keynes and other mid-20th century thinkers to bolster his case.
His remarks came as World Trade Organization members are scheduled to hold their biennial ministerial meeting in March in Cameroon. Although no major agreements are expected to be reached, countries could agree on a plan to discuss reform of the organization.
The United States, in a paper circulated last month at WTO headquarters in Geneva, has warned the three-decade-old institution “will continue its path toward irrelevancy” unless it makes big changes to its rules.
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