The EU needs “clarity” on Donald Trump’s intentions after he cancelled his planned levies against eight countries over their stance on Greenland, a senior lawmaker has told CNBC.
EU lawmakers have removed the threat of tariff countermeasures against the U.S. after the U.S. president backed down.
Bernd Lange, a member of the European Parliament and chair of EU-US trade relations on its committee on International trade, said the bloc still needs “greater clarity” on Trump’s intentions after he declared on Truth Social he had a “framework” of a deal between the White House and NATO late Wednesday. Trump later told CNBC he had “the concept of a deal.”
“First of all, nobody knows exactly what the details of this so-called solution or deal are. We have to look to the details,” Lange told CNBC by phone on Thursday morning.
“The decision about such a solution or deal should be taken by Denmark and the people in Greenland, not between two important men,” he said, referring to the discussions between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Let’s see what the development will bring,” he added.
On Wednesday, European lawmakers suspended approval of the trade pact agreed last July between the EU and U.S. after Trump unveiled plans last weekend to hit eight countries with fresh import levies.
European leaders planned to discuss potential responses at an emergency summit in Brussels later on Thursday evening, including countermeasures on some 93 billion euros ($108 billion) worth of U.S. imports that would have taken effect next month.
But after Trump canceled tariffs on eight European countries for opposing his bid to annex Greenland, saying he had “the framework of a future deal” over Greenland, tensions appear to have eased.
Lange said the EU’s countermeasures to tariffs were “not off the table, but on hold.”
“It’s clear that this list of countermeasures, which is still legally there, is now not coming into force in February, because it seems that there will be no tariffs from the United States. So this will be put on hold as well… perhaps prolonged for some months,” he said.
Despite Trump’s apparent climbdown, EU leaders are set to push ahead with their planned emergency summit later.
Lange said: “We will look to the assessment regarding this so-called Greenland solution, and secondly, we will contact our U.S. counterparts to get more clarity and security about respecting the deal on both sides.”
