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Trump walks back Greenland tariffs threat, citing vague ‘deal’ over territory

Donald Trump has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenland’s continued status as an autonomous Danish territory, the president backed down. The US will not hit Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland with tariffs of 10% from 1 February after all, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. Over the weekend, he had also threatened to lift the tariffs to 25% from 1 June. The threat had prompted widespread apprehension; criticism from senior European politicians, who declared they “will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed”; and warnings from economists. European Union leaders had threatened to deploy the bloc’s so-called anti-coercion instrument (ACI), otherwise known as the “trade bazooka”, which would have allowed the EU to retaliate in defense of coercion measures through extraordinary trade sanctions. After what he called a “very productive” meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Wednesday, Trump claimed he had formed “the framework” of a deal over Greenland, without providing more information. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1,” the president said. Trump did not give further details of the agreement, but said talks were continuing concerning a US missile defence shield that would be in part based in Greenland. The deal would be in force “for ever”, he claimed at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland. “We have a concept of a deal. I think it’s going to be a very good deal for the United States, also for them,” Trump told CNBC, the financial news network. “It’s a little bit complex, but we’ll explain it down the line.” Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said: “Discussions among Nato allies on the framework the president referenced will focus on ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of allies, especially the seven Arctic allies. She added: “Negotiations between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold – economically or militarily – in Greenland.” Denmark’s foreign minister said Trump has sent positive signals by saying he would not use military force to seize Greenland. “Trump said that he will pause the trade war. He says: ‘I will not attack Greenland.’ These are positive messages,” Lars Løkke Rasmussen told Danish public television DR. Trump “also had a good conversation with the Nato general secretary”, he said, without giving details. Hours earlier, during a rambling speech in Davos, Trump said the US would not use force to seize Greenland, but stressed that he still planned to wield his nation’s economic and diplomatic power to obtain it – and extolled the benefits of US tariffs. “You’re all party to them – in some cases, victims to them,” he told the assembled delegates from around the world. “But in the end, it’s a fair thing, and most of you realize that.” Yet the US president has repeatedly backed down from his most extreme threats on tariffs – most notably last spring, when he hailed the start of a new era for the US economy, only to shelve a vast wave of tariffs. Concern over Trump’s aggressive trade strategy is not just international, but domestic. His tariffs have repeatedly raised fears for the US economy. Wall Street suffered its worst day since October on Tuesday, the first day it traded after Trump’s threat to attack Nato allies with tariffs over Greenland. The US president pays close attention to stock-market movements, and mentioned them several times in his speech on Wednesday. He claimed credit for the fact they had hit a series of record highs since he returned to office, but acknowledged they dipped this week “because of Iceland”, apparently meaning his pursuit of Greenland. After he posted on Wednesday, global markets recovered. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 1.2% in New York, as the Dow Jones industrial average – closing in on 50,000 for the first time – climbed 1.2% to 49,080.22. Trump’s recent obsession with Greenland, after the US toppled the regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, has rattled global officials in recent weeks. Trump claims that Denmark owes Greenland to the US because it helped defend the territory during the second world war, which has been debunked, and that the US needs the territory for national security purposes. In his speech at Davos, Trump said the US would not use military force to take Greenland but demanded “immediate negotiations”. “We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said. “We’ve never asked for anything else.”

Sheinbaum defends transfer of Mexican cartel members amid efforts to appease Trump

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the latest transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups. It was the third such flight in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House, but analysts warn that while it remains an effective pressure valve, the returns may be diminishing. “I think they will have to find other solutions, and the issue of [Mexican] politicians connected to criminal networks is going to have ever more weight,” said Rodrigo Peña, a security expert. “There will be more pressure on the president to confront these networks.” Since Trump returned to White House he has repeatedly stated that Mexico is “run by cartels”, demanding Sheinbaum do more to take them on, under the looming threat of unilateral action. That threat weighs heavier than ever since the US military extracted Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela at the start of the year, and amid ongoing strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific and Caribbean. Since then, the US government has reportedly redoubled its push for the US military to be involved in joint operations on Mexican soil to dismantle laboratories making fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid behind the US overdose crisis. But the prospect of US boots on the ground in Mexico is a sensitive issue given the history of US interventions in the country, and Sheinbaum has repeatedly rejected the offer as a matter of sovereignty. Sheinbaum has instead offered another planeload of cartel operatives plucked from Mexican prisons, including high-level figures from the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación and Cartel del Noreste, two of the country’s powerful organised crime groups. They also included Pedro Inzunza Noriega, a fentanyl trafficker who in May 2025 was the first person to be charged with narco-terrorism by the US Department of Justice. Experts in Mexico have questioned the legal grounds for the flights, which are being conducted outside the usual extradition process. But Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s security minister, wrote on X that the people were “high impact criminals” who “represented a real threat to the country’s security” In theory, the 92 cartel figures sent so far are a potential trove for US law enforcement agencies that want to build cases, said Peña. “But I think the security policy of the Trump administration is so aggressive, so unilateral, so war-like, than they are less focused on intelligence work and more on other kinds of pressure – like what we saw in the Caribbean,” he added. The cost of unilateral action in Mexico would be far higher for the US than it was in Venezuela, given the political turmoil it would provoke in Mexico and the near trillion-dollar annual trade relationship the two countries share. But the US-Mexico-Canada free trade deal that binds the three countries is being renegotiated – and the trade and security agendas have become entangled. “The security agenda is no longer separate from trade negotiations – and that could completely pollute or derail those negotiations,” said Diego Marroquín Bitar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a thinktank in Washington DC. To stave off the threat of tariffs, the Mexican government has already helped the Trump administration with another aspect of its security agenda – the US-Mexico border – by suppressing the number of migrants arriving there and receiving deportees. “But that’s not enough for this administration: they expect more,” said Marroquín. “I think what they want is for the Mexican government to go after politicians: people in power who are associated with these [drug-trafficking] organisations. And the question is: ‘Is Sheinbaum willing to go after them?’ Because some of these people are going to be from her own party.”

How Badenoch’s meeting with Mike Johnson led to Trump’s Chagos deal rant

When Kemi Badenoch met Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday evening, she pressed him on two issues: the Chagos Islands deal and North Sea oil drilling. Neither participant was part of their respective executive branch, and neither issue was at the centre of the crisis that has engulfed transatlantic politics. But before long, the meeting had some very real political consequences. The brief encounter set off a chain of events including a call from Johnson to Donald Trump, a social media blast from the US president against the Chagos deal, and on Wednesday, an unprecedented public rebuff to Trump from Keir Starmer. “President Trump deployed words on Chagos yesterday that were different to his previous words of welcome and support. He deployed those words for the express purpose of putting pressure on me and Britain,” the prime minister told the Commons. “He wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so … I will not yield. Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland and the threats of tariffs.” The developments of the past 48 hours initially blindsided Downing Street but have resulted in a new, more combative stance from the prime minister. One that, some believe, could fundamentally alter the dynamic in his relationship with Trump and redraw US-UK relations for the foreseeable future. “The future of Greenland is for people of Greenland and Kingdom of Denmark alone, and tariffs to pressure allies is completely wrong,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said afterwards. “This is a significant moment, a national moment.” The Labour government agreed in October 2024 to hand over sovereignty of Chagos to Mauritius. Under the terms of the deal, the UK will maintain an initial 99-year lease of Diego Garcia, where it runs a military base jointly with the US, at a cost projected officially to be £3.4bn. The deal was agreed under pressure from Washington, British officials say, adding that their American counterparts were worried about what would happen to the base if Mauritius won a case at the international court of justice over its sovereignty. Almost immediately, the Reform leader Nigel Farage started warning that the incoming Trump administration did not like the deal, telling the Commons it had been an “enormous mistake” to sign it before the election. Farage’s warnings prompted an intensive lobbying operation from Downing Street. Officials, led by the then ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, hurried to reassure Trump’s allies the deal was in US interests. They believed they had been successful when Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, signed a statement last May backing the deal. “Following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia,” Rubio wrote. One person involved said persuading Rubio to sign that statement took “a lot of talk, explaining and persuading” from the British side. But while those talks were taking place, British conservatives also kept pressing their case. Last September, a group of prominent right-wingers – including the Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, the Labour peer Kate Hoey and the television historian David Starkey – wrote a letter to Trump arguing China and Russia could use the deal to work against US military interests. One of those who signed was the British-American commentator Nile Gardiner, a key intermediary between those close to Farage and the Trump administration. For several months the efforts failed, with no sign of the US administration shifting position. But as Trump has renewed his interest in taking over Greenland in recent days, British right-wingers saw an opportunity to press their case again. On Monday night, according to Tory sources, Badenoch told Johnson that even though the US had welcomed the deal, it was actually weakening British and American interests. The message was repeated to the speaker on GB News by Farage himself, who said: “I don’t know why America has not been more forthright in saying this is a bad idea.” That evening, Johnson was later to tell MPs, he spoke to Trump, where British officials believe he raised the Chagos issue. Hours later, the president’s bombshell dropped on his Truth Social platform. “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired,” he wrote. Some Labour figures believe the government’s position has not been helped by the fact there is no permanent ambassador in Washington to make the counter argument. Christian Turner, Mandelson’s replacement, will not begin until the beginning of February. Starmer argued on Wednesday that Trump’s real purpose was to put pressure on him to acquiesce to the president’s plan to buy Greenland, rather than to unravel the Chagos deal itself. His allies point out the fact that they were mentioned in the same sentence, and insist they will continue to pilot the legislation ratifying it through parliament. While the president’s post about Chagos might have prompted Starmer’s unusually outspoken criticism of the president, the prime minister’s allies say he had been toying with taking a tougher stance since the weekend when Trump began threatening Denmark’s allies with additional tariffs. One ally said the prime minister regarded the threat of tariffs as “completely unacceptable” and made him rethink his previously cautious approach to criticising the president in public. Allies also say he feels particularly aggrieved that Trump has criticised the UK despite its military assistance when the US recently seized a Russian oil tanker in the Atlantic. Starmer was also motivated by domestic political concerns however, hoping to depict Badenoch as supine before the Trump administration, and Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, as only interested in gesture politics. “Using the use of tariffs to pressure allies is completely wrong,” Starmer’s spokesperson said on Wednesday. “But [the prime minister] also set out the importance of the US-UK relationship, not least for Ukraine, in the face of leaders like Ed Davey reaching for gesture politics over a really serious issue.” Despite all the bluster of this week however, the political realities are unchanged. Starmer is pressing ahead with the Chagos deal, while Trump is threatening Greenland but is promising not to use force to take control of the territory. As Starmer’s official spokesperson told reporters on Wednesday: “The situation remains the same.”

Concern over north-east Syria security amid fears IS militants could re-emerge

Concerned western officials said they were closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in north-east Syria amid fears that Islamic State militants could re-emerge after the Kurdish defeat at the hands of the Damascus government. The US military said it had transported “150 IS fighters” from a frontline prison in Hasakah province across the border to Iraq, and said it was willing to move up to 7,000 to prevent what it warned could be a dangerous breakout. Kurdish sources said the prison involved was Panorama, which holds men from numerous countries – including a handful from the UK – though there was no detail on who had been rendered across the border. The dramatic advance of Syrian government forces, halted by a fragile ceasefire on Tuesday, resulted in prisons holding former IS fighters and a camp of over 23,000 IS women and children changing hands in a chaotic fashion within a few days. Though other high-profile female detainees, such as Shamima Begum, are thought to remain in the still Kurdish-controlled al-Roj camp in the extreme north-east of Syria, reports of escapes and a loss of control remain a source of anxiety in Europe. Reprieve, a human rights campaign group, estimates there are about 55 men, women and children from the UK or with a claim to UK nationality held in north-east Syria, though many – like Begum – have had their British citizenship removed. An estimated 120 IS militants escaped on Monday from the Shaddadi prison after it was seized from Syrian Kurdish forces in a bloody fight, although the Syrian government said that 81 had been recaptured since. Al-Hawl camp, holding more than 20,000 women, originally from about 70 countries, changed hands on Tuesday amid conflicting reports that at least some of the women detained there had been able to leave after Kurdish forces departed. Humanitarian organisations providing food, water and heating materials for al-Hawl, which lies in hostile desert, said they had not been able to visit since Sunday and were concerned that the situation there could become more unstable. European officials warned that many militants in the prisons and camps were considered to be dangerous, though it was unclear how far they would be able to regroup, and whether the Syrian government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president, would clamp down on them as had the Syrian Kurds. IS was territorially defeated in 2019, with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military led by Kurdish fighters acting as ground troops. Thousands of male militants were detained in prisons, while women and children were moved to camps, from where some have been gradually repatriated while others have remained for years. The SDF remained in control, as an effective government in north-eastern Syria during the final years of al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. But when al-Assad was ousted in December 2024 by al-Sharaa’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), it led to an uncertain situation with the SDF unwilling to fully integrate into the new Syria. Nanar Hawach, a Syria expert and analyst with Crisis Group, said there was a danger was “not a reborn caliphate but a dispersed insurgency rebuilding in the cracks”. Prison breaks “may have released experienced operatives into a contested security environment” between Syrian government and SDF forces, he said. On Tuesday, the US signalled it had abandoned its support for the SDF. Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria, said: “The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-Isis force on the ground has largely expired” and Washington’s partner in holding down IS was the Damascus government. Though HTS has its origins as an offshoot of al-Qaida, the terror group, it has had a history of opposing IS, and cut its ties with al-Qaida in 2016. Before beginning its offensive on Damascus, al-Sharaa emphasised that HTS had moved on, though there has been sectarian violence targeting Alawite, Druze and Kurdish minorities. Hawach said that the new Syrian government “clearly wants to be seen as a counter-terrorism partner” – but he cautioned that “securing Isis detention facilities, managing camps like al-Hawl, and suppressing sleeper cells across newly acquired territory requires resources, discipline, and institutional capacity that the Syrian government is still building”. A lightning offensive by the Syrian government forces, starting over the weekend, led to rapid gains from the SDF. The city of Raqqa was captured on Sunday and the SDF agreed to hand over the provinces of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor for a ceasefire. That broke down almost immediately, and government forces made more gains. Al-Sharaa agreed to a fresh ceasefire on Tuesday, a day after he had spoken to Donald Trump. The US president said he had been “trying to protect the Kurds”, though it is unclear if the SDF will agree to al-Sharaa’s demands or risk another round of fighting. The SDF leader, Mazloum Abdi, had been given four days from Tuesday to consult Kurdish leaders over accepting the Syrian government’s demands for close integration with Damascus.

Three journalists among 11 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians on Wednesday, including two 13-year-old boys and three journalists, in the latest violence to undermine a three-month-old ceasefire. Palestinian health officials said the Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian journalists who were travelling in a car to film a newly established displacement camp in the Netzarim area of central Gaza. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement that the reporters who died “were carrying out a humanitarian, journalistic mission to film and document the suffering of civilians”. In separate incidents on the same day, two boys aged 13 were killed in different parts of Gaza. In one strike, a boy, his father and a 22-year-old man were hit by Israeli drones on the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies. In another case, a 13-year-old boy, Moatsem al-Sharafy, was shot dead by Israeli troops while collecting firewood in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, according to Nasser hospital. Footage shared online showed the boy’s father weeping over his body on a hospital bed. The journalists killed were named as Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim. Shaat was a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse as a photo and video journalist, although the agency said he was not on assignment at the time of the strike. Local journalists said their work was sponsored by the Egyptian Relief Committee, which oversees Egypt’s relief operations in Gaza. Mohammed Mansour, a spokesperson for the committee, said the vehicle had been known to the Israeli military. Video circulating online showed a burned-out vehicle by the roadside, with smoke still rising from the wreckage and debris scattered across the ground. The bodies of two journalists had been taken to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, while the third was transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, medical officials said. The Israeli military said it had ordered the strike after its soldiers “identified several suspects who operated a drone affiliated with Hamas” in central Gaza. “Following the identification and due to the threat that the drone posed to the troops, the IDF precisely struck the suspects who activated the drone,” it said, adding that the details of the incident were under examination. The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Israeli forces had killed at least 29 Palestinian journalists in Gaza between December 2024 and December 2025 and that nearly 220 journalists had been killed since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. Other groups put the toll higher. Moatsem al-Sharafy’s mother, Safaa al-Sharafy, told the Associated Press that her son had gone out to gather firewood so she could cook. She said: “He went out in the morning, hungry. He told me he’d go quickly and come back.” Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect in October, according to health authorities.

Zelenskyy meeting with Trump expected to take place on Thursday – as it happened

This blog will be closing shortly, but you can still keep up with the latest updates coming from the World Economic Forum in Davos here. Here is an overview of today’s key developments: Donald Trump has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland in an extraordinary speech in Davos, but said the US would not use force to seize what he called the “big, beautiful piece of ice”. Addressing thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in the Swiss ski resort, the US president said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”. The European parliament has formally suspended the ratification process on its US trade deal, in protest against Donald Trump’s threat to impose 10% tariffs on EU exports unless the bloc agrees he can take over Greenland. Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament trade committee, said until “the threats [on Greenland] are over there will be no possibility for compromise” on ratifying the US deal, which promised Americans a new era of 0% tariffs on many industrial exports. At several points during his speech, Trump appeared to confuse Greenland with Iceland, claiming “Iceland” had caused a drop in stock prices on Tuesday – when markets fell as a result of his threat to impose new tariffs on eight European countries. The US president claimed Nato has treated the US very unfairly, and “it’s time that Nato steps up” as “we are helping them with Ukraine”. He said Greenland costs Denmark “hundreds of millions a year to run it”, and while Denmark is “a small country and wonderful people, it is very expensive” for “a very big piece of ice”. Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said it’s “positive in isolation” that Trump pledged not to use force over Greenland, but it doesn’t change the fact that he seems to be determined to take control of the territory. He added that Denmark will continue diplomatic talks with the US, but it’s not negotiating or willing to compromise on its fundamental principles about territory. Greenland’s government announced a new brochure on Wednesday offering advice to the population in the event of a “crisis” in the territory, which Trump has repeatedly vowed to seize from ally Denmark. This document is “an insurance policy”, said self-sufficiency minister Peter Borg at a press conference in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital. A meeting between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to take place tomorrow, with the US president saying on Wednesday that “we are reasonably close to deal on Ukraine”. The European parliament voted on Wednesday to refer a freshly signed trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur to the EU’s top court, casting a veil of legal uncertainty over the accord. In a close ballot, lawmakers in Strasbourg voted 334 to 324 in favour of asking the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to determine whether the highly polarising deal, which sparked protests on the sidelines of this week’s sitting, is compatible with the bloc’s policy. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen reiterated that “the future of Greenland is only for the Greenlanders to decide” as she warned that Europe needs to “transform the ways in which we think and act” to step up to challenges posed by the rapidly changing world order. She said that Europe needed to realise “we now live in a world defined by raw power,” adding that “in this increasingly lawless world, Europe needs its own levers of power” and abandon its “traditional caution” to build on its economic might and become more independent. Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki has defended his recent comments suggesting that the issue of Greenland should be primarily resolved bilaterally between Denmark and the US. Speaking in Davos, he said he “recognised some problems about Greenland,” but said he looked at it in the broader security perspective as Poland was acutely aware of the Russian threat in particular and the US played an important role “on the eastern flank of Nato.” A major power cut affected the Danish Bornholm island after local power supplier Trefor El-Net Øst said that a submarine cable linking it with Sweden failed this morning. The island, which has nearly 40,000 residents, was cut off this morning after a reported overload, but the company insisted in comments to Danish media that there was no reason for concern. Jakub Krupa will be back tomorrow with more coverage the latest events in Europe.

The spy who came in from the bus stop | Brief letters

Dan Sabbagh reports that a former British defence attache to Moscow said he was tailed every time he left the British embassy (Why a Chinese ‘mega embassy’ is not such a worry for British spies. 18 January). A British spy in Moscow in the 1960s told me how, after offering his bus fare one morning, the driver said it had already been paid. As the driver pointed to a fellow passenger, the Briton and the Russian tasked with tailing him exchanged knowing glances. Richard Norton-Taylor London • Following the letters (15 January and 18 January) in praise of Martin Kettle’s excellent political writing, I’d like to add my appreciation for his superb reviews of classical music. He shows great knowledge and insight into both areas – a real renaissance man. I hope that he will still provide the odd music review in his well-earned retirement. Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick St Albans • I’d got as far as page 6 of the 20 January print edition of the Guardian and was mentally composing a letter about the appalling Trump situation – then I reached page 7, where John Crace said everything I’d planned to say. Cheers, John! Sophie Houston Dunoon, Argyll and Bute • In our house we refer to the chore of changing a double duvet cover (Letters, 15 January) as “wrestling with the bear” – a term purloined from a description in the Guardian of Neil Young’s guitar soloing. Chris Osborne West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire • If Robert Jenrick is “the new sheriff in town” (Report, 18 January), I wonder what that makes Nigel Farage. Deputy Dawg? Cherry Weston Wolverhampton • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

EU parliament blocks US trade deal after Trump’s tariff threat

The European parliament has formally suspended the ratification process on its US trade deal, in protest against Donald Trump’s threat to impose 10% tariffs on EU exports unless the bloc agrees he can take over Greenland. The pause is the strongest material response the EU has shown so far to what several leaders last week called blackmail. Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament trade committee, said until “the threats [on Greenland] are over there will be no possibility for compromise” on ratifying the US deal, which promised Americans a new era of 0% tariffs on many industrial exports. Lange confirmed that the EU’s promise to buy $750bn (£560bn) of energy would not be affected by the decision as it was separate to the tariff deal. In a sign of the downward turn in transatlantic relations, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, went back to Brussels after addressing parliament, instead of taking a detour back to Davos to meet Trump. She returned to prepare for an emergency summit in Brussels at 7pm on Thursday to discuss a range of options open to the EU in the event the US president went ahead with his tariff threat. They include slapping €93bn (£81bn) worth of tariffs on US exports to the EU and the activation of a never-before-used anti-coercion instrument, seen as the nuclear deterrent of trade sanctions. Originally designed to limit China’s coercion of individual member states, it would allow the EU to restrict US businesses from accessing the EU market. In theory, the EU could take aim at anything from US tech and crypto companies to aircraft makers or agricultural goods. But European consumers could balk at extra costs or restrictions on US companies, such as Apple or Netflix. The EU said it continued to work at diplomatic solutions to avert a trade war, while Lange conceded that “a lot could happen” between now and 2 February when Trump’s tariff threats are due to be realised. “There are always day-by-day surprises coming from the White House,” he said. While a trade war with the US would be highly damaging, the EU’s attempts to diversify its markets were also dealt a serious blow by parliament after MEPs voted, by a majority of just 10, to refer the Mercosur trade deal with Latin American countries to the European court of justice. The decision was condemned by Lange, while the European Commission said the decision was “regrettable”, as did Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany, where car manufacturers also denounced the move. The European Commission has the power to implement the Mercosur agreement provisionally as it did with the Brexit trade deal with the UK. But Lange warned that if the Commission pressed ahead with such a move, it would plunge the bloc into “huge institutional conflict”.