EU Parliament Freezes U.S. Trade Deal Over Greenland Dispute
The vote on unfreezing the Turnberry Agreement has been delayed until next Wednesday, trade committee chair Bernd Lange announced following behind-closed-doors discussions Monday. Lange pointed to continuing doubts about a NATO "framework" for US access to the Danish autonomous island and its mineral resources, which has eased but not resolved tensions with Washington.
US President Donald Trump pulled back his threat of trade tariffs against nations opposing his bid to acquire Greenland after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last Wednesday. Responding to Trump's initial pressure campaign, MEPs had frozen ratification of the trade deal originally announced by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry, Scotland.
Participants offered conflicting reports from Monday's session about whether consensus existed to advance swiftly or embrace a more aggressive posture that might antagonize Trump. Sources indicated some lawmakers pushed the European Commission to ready activation of the Anti-Coercion Instrument—nicknamed the "trade bazooka"—should the dispute flare up again.
The Trump administration has deployed intimidation and military threats to pursue American strategic interests, including against US allies. During the recent flare-up that coincided with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the global elites gathering in Switzerland that the US-led "rules-based order" was always "partially false" and that Western nations had agreed to "live within a lie" to "avoid trouble."
Russia has maintained that Western European nations' military and economic reliance on Washington compromises their sovereignty. Moscow has kept its distance from the Greenland dispute, calling it a matter between the US and its fellow NATO members.
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