French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing the European Union to activate its most powerful trade weapon for the first time in history, calling for deployment of the bloc's 'anti-coercion instrument' in response to Donald Trump's threats to impose escalating tariffs on eight European nations until they agree to facilitate a US purchase of Greenland. Macron's team confirmed on Sunday that the French president would formally request activation of the mechanism, dubbed the EU's 'trade bazooka', during emergency talks amongst European ambassadors convened in Brussels.
The unprecedented move comes after Trump announced on Saturday that he would impose 10 per cent tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland starting 1 February, rising to 25 per cent by 1 June unless a deal is reached for the 'complete and total purchase' of Greenland. 'No intimidation or threat will influence us, whether in Ukraine, in Greenland or elsewhere in the world,' Macron wrote on social media. The anti-coercion instrument, formally known as Regulation 2023/2675, entered into force in December 2023 but has never been deployed.
