EU Debates ‘Trade Bazooka’ Amid Greenland Tariff Row (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Global News Podcast on YouTube, where we go behind the headlines. And today, we're looking at how Europe can respond to those tariff threats from President Trump over Greenland. We're joined from Brussels by our Europe correspondent Nick Beek. And Nick, first of all, outline for us this tricky situation that European leaders are having to navigate.

[00:00:21] Speaker 2: Well, on the one hand, Ollie, it's a really simple situation. When you talk about Greenland, for European leaders, it is a territory which is part of Denmark, which in turn is part of the European Union, and it is not for sale. The problem is that President Trump sees it in a very different way. He says that he has to get Greenland. He says he needs that for security, for the security of the US, the security of the world. He says it's such a big threat from China and Russia that really the answer to combat that is American ownership. The European Union says absolutely not. This is something that can't be entertained. And what we've seen now is that President Trump is threatening to apply tariffs, taxes on eight European countries who have given their support to Greenland. He's not happy with them at all. And so Europe is trying to work out how do they respond to that threat from the man in the White House.

[00:01:16] Speaker 1: And what is this big bazooka or trade bazooka that Europe might use?

[00:01:22] Speaker 2: Yes. So this is something that the Europeans came up with two years ago. And the idea is if there is a hostile external force which is trying to bully the European Union, interfere in its affairs, there is a way of responding to that, taking economic action. Now, at the time, they were thinking of China potentially bullying the EU. They weren't thinking about the US. But what would happen if this device were to be used, this so-called trade bazooka? What they'd do is there would be countermeasures. There'd be retaliatory tariffs. So basically, attacks would be put on American goods. Maybe American firms would be banned from sending their goods into the European single market. Maybe US firms would be barred from going for some sort of contracts that were available globally. So this is something that could be done. President Macron of France has said that he believes it's the way forward. Interestingly, the Germans have suggested they might think this is also the right approach. But then you've got Giorgia Maloney of Italy, and she is saying that we really don't want to be dragged into a trade war with our biggest trading partner, who, of course, is the United States.

[00:02:36] Speaker 1: And what other options do the Europeans have? There was some suggestion they might revive tariffs they were considering last year.

[00:02:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting one. This was some 93 billion euros worth of tariffs. And this sort of short list or long list, really, of different American products that may be subject to tariffs was put together after Donald Trump made his first round of tariff threats against the European Union, of course, lots of other countries around the world. They had this negotiating period. And back in July of last year, they came to this arrangement whereby there would be a 15 percent tariff applied to many European goods going into America. And a lot of people saw that as lopsided because there weren't to be any tariffs on the American products being sent here to Europe. So at the time, they drew up this list of potential American products that may be taxed further in the future. They haven't gone ahead with putting this into practice. But now some people are saying, well, actually, if President Trump is talking about doing this, maybe this is something we should look at again as a way of retaliating and certainly making him think again.

[00:03:46] Speaker 1: There's some suggestion that this all might be a negotiating tactic from Europe. Will President Trump care about either a trade bazooka or tariffs? He seems desperate to get hold of Greenland at all costs.

[00:04:00] Speaker 2: He does, doesn't he? He said that America absolutely has to have Greenland. And the sort of that what we're hearing from Washington, D.C., is that he is deadly serious in this pursuit of what is the biggest island in the world in terms of what will affect his thinking if there is a trade war. And clearly, this wouldn't be something that kicks in in 24 hours. And we see instantaneous results and impact on millions of people. But if there is some sort of big disagreement economically between the U.S. and the EU, and it affects people in the U.S. in particular, as well as millions of consumers here in Europe, surely that will be something that has an impact on President Trump, who likes to boast of having basically reignited the U.S. economy, that people are feeling much better off with him being the man leading the country. So that could be something that makes him think twice. But I think the challenge for European leaders is that they're trying to think about something in the short term that would make him think again and sort of row back from what he's threatening to do.

[00:05:04] Speaker 1: You mentioned some differences between the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgio Meloni, and some of the others. Could Europe stay united if push comes to shove here?

[00:05:15] Speaker 2: I think that could be quite difficult, actually. And it was interesting when President Trump first announced that there could be tariffs on the European countries who've shown their support for Greenland and, by extension, Denmark. So we're talking about the United Kingdom, France, Germany, some of the Nordic countries, Denmark as well. The immediate reaction from the woman who runs the EU's foreign policy, Kaya Kalas, she said Russia and China will be basically rubbing their hands with glee. They can't believe their luck, the prospect of Europe being disunited on this and being weakened and fragmented. And I think there is a challenge because, as we've seen with Ukraine over the past couple of years, quite often people say, you know, Europe thinks this or Europe wants to do that. It's not quite as simple as that. You've got 27 different countries with competing ideas. All of these leaders have to think about their domestic audiences. And you've got the likes of Hungary have been really problematic at times. Also Slovakia and other countries not willing to sign up to what maybe France and Germany want. So I think the idea of European unity is really being tested at the moment by President Trump.

[00:06:23] Speaker 1: And how bad could things get for the global economy? Could we see a world trade war?

[00:06:29] Speaker 2: I think certainly that's the fear that privately diplomats and politicians and leaders are talking about. They don't want to make things any worse. And I get a sense that there may well be a wait and see approach to this, that the threat of a global trade war, one that emanates from Europe, is something that people don't want to contemplate already in a world which has got so many problems with different geopolitical hotspots, with conflicts raging. And so I think what people will do is they'll wait and see if President Trump says more. Does he flesh out this argument that he's making for more tariffs? Is it the case that his attention is turned elsewhere? Can there be some sort of arrangement reached with him? I think the European leaders will not want to rush into any sort of rash decisions here and really try and take their time and try to present, whether that's possible or not, some sort of united front.

[00:07:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask you, what are the chances of a deal? You have the likes of Sir Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, trying to dial things down.

[00:07:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the problem, Ollie, is that the two sides, the US and the EU, are just poles apart when it comes to sort of fundamental questions here. The Europeans saying that Greenland is not for sale. So in a way, there's no way we can have a discussion or a debate or an argument and sit down with all these high-level meetings and lots of people gathered round tables, taking notes copiously, because, you know, if you're not going to sell it, that's not the case. President Trump says there has to be an outcome to this. This is the businessman in him who says there has to be a solution to this. He hasn't taken away the possibility of military intervention. People think that that is very unlikely, but he's kept that on the table. And he says, look, he has to buy it for the security of the United States, the security of Europe and the security of the whole world. So it's hard to see how a deal can be done here, because what would be the terms of a deal? What would it look like? But certainly, European leaders are talking about compromise and trying to accommodate President Trump in some way.