Ireland welcomes withdrawal of Greenland tariff threat

The withdrawal of the threat of additional tariffs on European countries by US President Donald Trump has been welcomed by the heads of the Irish Government.

Mr Trump had threatened a 10% tariff on eight European allies, including the UK, from February 1 unless they agree to his purchase of Greenland.

During a speech to world leaders at Davos on Wednesday, he reiterated demands for immediate negotiations to acquire the Arctic territory while ruling out using force.

Ireland, although not among the eight countries threatened, had said tariffs on some member states amounted to tariffs on all member states.

Mr Trump later rowed back on the threat of the tariffs, stating he Nato secretary general Mark Rutte had “formed the framework of a future deal” for the Arctic region.

Simon Harris, who is also Ireland’s deputy premier and Finance Minister, said the “significant development” gave “credence and credibility” to the EU’s strategy which he said was defined by maintaining “cool heads” and not responded to “every bit of political noise” nor “every Truth Social post”.

In a statement, he said: “There’s much detail to emerge, and there’s still obviously much volatility, but today we have heard the President of the United States rule out force in relation to Greenland.

“We’ve also now seen in the last number of minutes him withdraw as a threat of additional tariffs.

“But it is important we continue to work collectively as a European Union, and collectively to stand up for the sovereignty of Denmark and Greenland – Greenland being a part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

“And also collectively work to seek the full implementation of the trade agreements that we already agreed with the US administration – an agreement that is key to protecting economic activity on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Taoiseach Micheal Martin also welcomed the de-escalation, telling RTE News in Davos: “I think it reflects what I’ve been consistently saying, that the only way to resolve issues of this kind is through dialogue, through discussion and through engagement.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister said the announcement from Mr Trump did “not really” create certainty.

Helen McEntee told The Tonight Show on Virgin Media One: “That threat has been taken off the table. That doesn’t mean it was right, and it doesn’t mean that I think we can take a foot off the pedal here, because, you know, things have changed in the past.”

Ms McEntee said Mr Trump was “of course” influenced by the markets, as she said a trade war would not have been of benefit to US or EU citizens.

She said EU foreign ministers had a “hope and an anticipation” that there would be a climbdown but admitted there had not been a feeling that the US position was weakening during a meeting of her counterparts on Tuesday night.

Mr Harris had earlier warned that US tariffs imposed on European countries could create a “spiral of events” that have a potentially “enormous” impact on economies and markets.

He said it was difficult to model the potential impact of such tariffs – as it could be part of a fundamental change in the transatlantic relationship.

He said that if the US were to annex Greenland that would “fundamentally alter the transatlantic relationship” and said that that in turn could create a “spiral of events and retaliatory events” across economies and markets.

“You can run a model that if there’s a 15% tariff applied on a country – and we did this before and published it – that would have an effect on what we call ‘modified domestic demand’, effectively growth, by 1.4% to 1.5% annually over a medium term, that it would result in roughly around 60,000 fewer jobs being created if there were tariffs.

“But what those models can’t capture is what happens if the transatlantic relationship, as we know it, doesn’t exist into the future.”