The European Parliament's international trade committee suspended work on the U.S.-EU trade agreement Tuesday, marking the most concrete European economic response to Donald Trump's escalating territorial demands over Greenland.
The decision halts formal approval and implementation of the Turnberry Agreement reached in July 2025, which had capped U.S. tariffs on most EU imports at 15 percent—among the lowest rates for any American trading partner.
"Given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland, our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake," said Bernd Lange, chairman of the trade committee, in a statement to NBC News. "This makes business as usual impossible."
The suspension comes after Trump threatened Saturday to impose 10 percent tariffs starting February 1 on seven EU nations plus the United Kingdom unless they permit U.S. control of Greenland—a self-governing territory of Denmark. The president warned those tariffs could escalate to 25 percent by June 1.
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. The Turnberry pact represented a rare moment of transatlantic cooperation following years of trade tensions under Trump's first administration. That agreement removed tariffs entirely on generic pharmaceuticals and established frameworks for resolving disputes through consultation rather than retaliation.
Now, barely six months after its signing, the deal sits frozen—a victim of the same unilateral approach that made it necessary in the first place.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, addressed the breakdown obliquely at on Monday. she said, according to .
