A “commercial nuclear weapon” and US$100 billion in tariffs, the ace up Europe’s sleeve to punish Trump

Europeans are beginning to understand that appeasing the tenant of the White House not workingas they thought until July, when they signed a trade agreement in Scotland that is now a dead letter and that the European Parliament will not ratify. That agreement, which was considered unbalanced in favor of Washington, was defended by the European Commission claiming that it prevented a major conflict.

The ambassadors of the 27 to the European Union met on Sunday afternoon, this Monday the Finance Ministers met and on Thursday there will be a leaders’ summit, to close a response that will be unprecedented.

France and Germany are now openly asking for the use of what in Brussels is called “the commercial nuclear weapon.” It is the anti-coercion mechanism that was created in 2023 to respond, it was understood then, to a China that did not seem to seek anything other than confrontation. Nobody thought then that it would serve against the United States.

It is not used because a country imposes tariffs, but, according to the rules that regulate it, “when a third country applies or threatens to apply measures that affect trade or investment in order to prevent or obtain the cessation, modification or adoption of a specific act by the European Union or a Member State.”

That Denmark sends troops to its sovereign territory and Trump responds by saying that this threatens world peace and that is why it imposes tariffs is understood as a coercive movement that deserves that response.

The anti-coercion instrumentalso called “bazooka”would close access to the European market for American companies. When it was designed it became so powerful because It was meant to serve as a deterrent. not to be used. Limits the granting of commercial licenses and access to European public tenders. It would close the European market to any American service company.

That tool It is not fast or automatic. Governments must request it, the European Commission has four months to evaluate the situation and finally governments must decide whether to activate it or not. When the next step is activated is to ask for negotiations from the country in question. If you reject them, the mechanism is triggered.

That is why now it is also being studied to impose tariffs worth 93,000 million euros (calculated so that 100,000 million dollars appear in the news in the United States), which They would be applied automatically starting February 7 if there is no decision to stop them and they would seek to do political damage to Trump attacking especially states governed by Republicans.

In Europe voices are being raised against the United States like never before It had been thought that it could happen. One of the vice presidents of the European Commission, the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné, said this Monday that “Greenland will never be American.” But the shock, at least commercial, seems inevitable because Denmark does not intend to sell the island of Greenland or give it up and the United States does not accept anything other than appropriating it.

This Monday, Norway also leaked news that had to be verified several times because it seemed like an obvious hoax. But it was true. Donald Trump wrote last week to the head of the Nobel Committee and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The letter says: “Dear Jonas, considering that your country has decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize, for having ended more than 8 wars, I no longer feel obliged to think purely about peace”.