STRASBOURG, France, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament on Wednesday decided to put on hold approval of the trade deal between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) following U.S. threats of tariffs linked to Greenland.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, said in a statement that the Parliament would suspend work on two legislative proposals related to the deal.
"Given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have been left with no alternative but to suspend work on the two legislative proposals," Lange said.
"By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the U.S. is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-U.S. trade relations," he added.
Under the EU-U.S. trade deal reached last July, the European Union would suspend tariffs on all U.S. industrial products and introduce tariff-rate quotas for a wide range of U.S. agri-food products entering the EU market. In return, the United States would apply a 15-percent import tariff on most EU goods. The European Commission subsequently published two legislative proposals aimed at implementing certain tariff aspects of the agreement.
Lange said the European Parliament had been "working hard to define its position" on the two proposals in order to be able to enter negotiations with the Council of the European Union and implement the EU's commitments under the deal.
However, the process was derailed by U.S. President Donald Trump's renewed push for the acquisition of Greenland and his threats to impose tariffs on goods from eight European countries opposing his ambition to control the territory.
Manfred Weber, chair of the European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, wrote on X last week: "The EPP is in favour of the EU-U.S. trade deal, but given Donald Trump's threats regarding Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage. The zero percent tariffs on U.S. products must be put on hold."
Trump on Wednesday reiterated his bid in a special address at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling for "immediate negotiations" on the acquisition of Greenland and describing it as "a strategic national and international security interest."
Leaders of EU member states will hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday night to discuss U.S. threats related to Greenland and assess possible retaliatory measures.
