President Donald Trump threatened to levy 50% tariffs on goods from member nations of the European Union after Greenland gave a Danish-French mining company a 30-year mining permit.
The permit will allow the group to extract a rock that could assist with aluminum production in a climate friendly way. The deal was signed on Wednesday, just two days before Trump posted to social media.
Trump expressed an interest in buying the nation earlier this year. The island contains a wealth of minerals, oil and natural gas making it a desirable frontier of natural resources.
The 47th President took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to express his dismay at the deal.
“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable,” he began.
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he concluded.
This announcement also followed the President’s threats to impose a 35% tariff on Apple iPhones in an attempt to strong arm the company into moving production to the United States. Trump announced potential tariffs against Apple just minutes before threatening the EU.
The posts were immediately followed by sinking US stock futures, with European stock markets falling by 2%.
Originally published on Latin Times
