Starmer hits out over Greenland tariffs, but rules out trade war

Keir Starmer criticised Donald Trump on Monday, after the US president threatened to hit allies with a wave of tariffs over Greenland, but ruled out retaliatory levies.

Trump announced over the weekend that he would place sanctions on the eight European nations, including the UK, that sent troops to Greenland in response to US threats over the island’s future. He pledged to implement a wave of escalating tariffs from 1 February until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.

The EU, which has called the president’s actions blackmail, is considering imposing its own tariffs on US imports in response. Possible options include a package of levies on €93bn of US imports coming into effect from 6 February, or implementing the so-far never used anti-coercion instrument (ACI).

If introduced, the swingeing ACI would limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity or restrict trade services, including digital services.

However, giving an emergency speech on Monday morning, Starmer said the UK was not currently considering its own retaliatory tariffs.

The prime minster insisted Trump’s use of tariffs on Nato allies was "completely wrong" and "not the right way to resolve the difference within an alliance". He also reiterated that the future of Greenland was for the people of Greenland and Denmark alone to decide.

But he also told reporters that a trade war was "in no-one’s interests".

He continued: "We have not got to that stage, and my focus is on making sure we don’t get to that stage," warning that it would be "businesses, workers, families across the country" that would be hit hardest by any trade war.

Starmer also reiterated that the UK's relationship with the US, a close ally, "matters profoundly".

Trump’s tariff threat led to a flurry of calls on Sunday between Washington, London and Brussels. Greenlanders have also taken to the streets to demonstrate against the threat of the US taking over the island. But Trump remains adamant in his demands, despite mounting global opposition.

On Monday it emerged he had sent a message to Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, which was then forwarded to various European ambassadors in Washington.

In the widely-reported missive, he said: "The World is not secure unless we have Compete and Total Control of Greenland!"

He continued: "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can think about what is good and proper for the United States of America."

He said Demark could not protect the land from Russia or China. "And why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.

"I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States."