President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will not impose tariffs scheduled to take effect Feb. 1 on eight European countries that oppose his campaign to take over Greenland.
In a Truth Social post, the president said he and Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, had established a framework for a future deal regarding Greenland and the entire Arctic region, making the 10% tariffs scheduled for next month unnecessary.
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” Trump said. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.”
The president did not provide details on the framework but said discussions were underway on the Golden Dome, a conceptual missile defense shield. Trump has said U.S. control of Greenland is necessary to build the system and for national security more generally.
Trump’s reversal came hours after European Union members voted during a session of the European Parliament to indefinitely suspend a trade deal framework with the U.S. that had been formalized in August in response to tariff threats Trump made last week.
At the time, Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on “any and all goods” from six EU nations (Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland), as well as the United Kingdom and Norway, effective Feb. 1. The levy would have risen to 25% on June 1 if a deal for the U.S. to purchase Greenland wasn’t reached.
It is unclear whether Trump’s cancellation of the February tariffs will affect the EU’s decision to halt its pact with the U.S.
Under the framework’s terms, the U.S. would impose a 15% tariff on EU imports, while the bloc would remove tariffs on U.S. industrial products and grant preferential market access to a range of U.S. food exports. The deal also called for the U.S. to levy a 15% tariff on EU cars and auto parts.
