Trump Threatens Tariffs on Eight European Countries Over Greenland

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on goods from eight European countries on Saturday, escalating tensions over his administration's push to acquire Greenland and prompting a sharp decline in global stock markets as trading resumed this week.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that 10 percent import tariffs would take effect on February 1 for products from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain. The levies would rise to 25 percent on June 1 and remain in place until the countries support a U.S. deal to purchase Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Danish officials and Greenland's leaders have repeatedly stated that the island is not for sale, rejecting the proposal outright.

The announcement rattled investors, reviving memories of market turmoil from Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs announced in April of last year, which initially drove the S&P 500 toward bear market levels before being delayed and softened. U.S. markets were closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but futures indicated a downturn, with S&P 500 contracts down about 1.75 percent overnight. In late-morning trading Tuesday, the...