US announces 10% additional tariff on several EU countries and UK over Greenland

The US administration has announced a 10% additional tariff that will be charged to several EU countries to ‘end potentially perilous situation’ regarding Greenland. In its quest to purchase Greenland, the US administration (‘the US’) announced on 17 January 2026 a 10% tariff will be charged to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom after sending small numbers of military personnel to Greenland. The tariff will be charged as of 1 February 2026 and will be increased to 25% on 1 June 2026. In its statement, the US administration indicated that the tariff will apply to “any and all goods sent to the United States of America”. So far, the US administration has only announced its intention to introduce these tariffs. A US regulation detailing the specific tariffs has not yet been published. Therefore, the announcement could simply be intended to strengthen the US's negotiating position with its trading partners.

President von der Leyen from the European Commission and President Costa from the European Council indicated in their Joint Statement of 17 January that tariffs would “undermine the transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral”.

Determination of non-preferential origin crucial for exports to the USA

Although not touched upon in the US administration’s statement, it is expected that the tariff will apply to goods of the non-preferential origin of said European countries. The rules to determine the non-preferential origin are governed by the country of import, in this case the US.

Generally, in the non-preferential origin determination the EU is seen by third countries as a single bloc rather than 27 Member States. Therefore, for the purpose of applying the rules of origin, no distinction is made between materials used from specific Member States. As the levy targets specific European countries it is expected that, where it the EU concerns, the rules of origin must be applied on Member State level rather than on EU level.

This will likely commercially require EU exporters to further specify the manufacturing process and materials used in the product shipped to the US on a Member State level, deviating from the generally applied origin determination processes. Based on the current communication, the tariffs should apply on all goods; contrary to earlier US measures there are no product groups or industries excluded at this point in time.

Developments in the EU-US trade relation

The downward spiral referred to by Presidents von der Leyen and Costa might be initiated very quickly. Firstly, implementation of the EU-US trade deal agreed upon between Presidents von der Leyen and Trump on 27 July 2025 may be put on hold. This was already under consideration of the European Parliament due to the threats by President Trump regarding Greenland in the days before the tariff announcement. The EU-US trade deal would – inter alia – eliminate tariffs upon import in the EU of US industrial goods and limit the tariffs upon import into the US applicable to goods with EU origin to a maximum, all-inclusive tariff of 15%. For specific groups of products, the standard tariffs would remain applicable.

Furthermore, this tariff announcement could also trigger the applicability of the announced EU rebalancing measures to the US safeguard measures on steel and aluminum and the US reciprocal tariffs by ending the suspension thereof. This would result in additional tariffs up to 30% upon importation of US goods into the EU.

In the meantime, also the Anti-Coercion Instrument (‘ACI’) is mentioned by multiple Member States, including Germany and France, to invoke countermeasures to the US. The ACI is implemented in 2023 to provide the EU “with the means to deter and respond to economic coercion, and thereby better defend its interests and those of its Member States on the global stage”. These measures are not limited to trade in goods but may include restrictions on the access to the EU market and other economic disadvantages for the coercer.

An emergency summit in Brussels to discuss the options is scheduled for Thursday 22 January 2026.

Key Take Aways

The US administration's announcement of a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and the United Kingdom has far-reaching consequences for EU-US trade relations. The European Commission intends to mitigate the impact of these tariffs with countermeasures, but the trade agreement already negotiated with the US administration is also being called into question. Should the trade agreement ultimately fail to enter into force, further higher tariffs for all EU member states are likely.