Trump vowed over the weekend to inflict punishing tariffs on six EU countries, the U.K. and Norway over their opposition to his Greenland grab. He said an additional 10 percent tariff would enter into force on Feb. 1 unless Europe hands over the Arctic island.
The EU is internally divided on how best to respond to the American president’s saber-rattling, with France requesting the EU deploy its Anti-Coercion Instrument, or trade bazooka, to cut off U.S. firms from the bloc’s single market, while other capitals have urged restraint and dialogue.
In a veiled rebuke to Trump, von der Leyen singled out “the people of the United States” as Europe’s friends, calling on Washington to respect the trade deal it struck with the EU last summer in Scotland, which set a tariff ceiling of 15 percent on most European exports.
“In politics as in business: a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something,” she said, adding Trump’s proposed new tariffs were a “mistake.”
And with Trump dramatically rewriting the transatlantic alliance, “Europe needs to adjust to the new security architecture and realities that we are now facing,” von der Leyen said, adding the “old order” is dead.
Von der Leyen also used the speech to display the EU’s network of friends across the world, at a time when Washington is withdrawing from the multilateral order.