{"id":111830,"date":"2026-01-19T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111830"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:51:00","slug":"trade-war-in-no-ones-interest-says-british-pm-in-face-of-trump-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111830","title":{"rendered":"Trade war in no-one\u2019s interest, says British PM in face of Trump threats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 23 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said a trade war is in \u201cno one\u2019s interest\u201d after Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tax on imports from the UK and other countries that oppose his plans to take control of Greenland.<\/p>\n

Making a speech from Downing Street, Sir Keir said the \u201cright approach\u201d was \u201cthrough calm discussion\u201d and that the use of tariffs against allies was \u201cnot the right way to resolve differences\u201d.<\/p>\n

He reiterated his belief that decisions about the island should rest with the people of Greenland and Denmark.<\/p>\n

Principle \u201ccannot be set aside\u201d, he said, but he vowed to take a \u201cpragmatic\u201d approach, emphasising both the economic and military importance of the UK-US relationship.<\/p>\n

He said he did not believe Trump was genuinely considering military action against Greenland.<\/p>\n

While seeking to diffuse tensions, the prime minister stressed that the situation was \u201cvery serious\u201d and said it was a \u201cmoment for the whole country to pull together\u201d.<\/p>\n

He welcomed the support offered by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch regarding Greenland and potential tariffs.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threat had, he said. been \u201cvery badly received\u201d in the UK but warned against \u201cperformative\u201d or \u201cgrandstanding\u201d actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may make politicians feel good, but it does nothing for working people whose jobs, livelihoods and security rely on the relationships we build across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Keir defended his decision to pursue a close relationship with Trump, arguing that it had help deliver \u201chundreds of billions of pounds\u201d of investment in the UK.<\/p>\n

During his speech and the subsequent question session, he also made repeated references to US-UK co-operation on defence, nuclear capability and intelligence.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would consider imposing retaliatory tariffs on the US, the prime minister replied: \u201cWe have not got to that stage, my focus is making sure we don\u2019t get to that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Sir Keir spoke to the prime ministers of Canada and Italy, Mark Carney and Giorgia Meloni, and explained that the UK and its allies need to reassure Trump that they are ready to defend the Arctic from Russia and China.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokesperson said: \u201cHe said that it was in everybody\u2019s interests to go further to deliver on Arctic security, and that the UK stands ready to contribute fully alongside our allies through Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n

European leaders are expected to raise the future of Greenland with Trump this week, when he travels to Davos for the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron has hinted he wants to impose counter-tariffs, saying the EU should deploy its \u201ctrade bazooka\u201d, but Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has expressed concerns about the mutual cost of a trade war.<\/p>\n

The prime minister is not currently due to attend Davos, but it remains an option as the week progresses.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, a small French military contingent\u00a0travelled\u00a0to Greenland as part of a so-called reconnaissance mission. The deployment also involved Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK.<\/p>\n

Asked if Trump had incorrectly interpreted the visit as a hostile act towards the US, Sir Keir said: \u201cThis is one of the things I discussed with President Trump yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose forces were clearly there to assess and work on the risk from the Russians \u2013 there is real clarity, I hope, about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Europe needed \u201cto step up and do more on its own defence and security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US president has partly justified his interest in controlling Greenland by arguing that Denmark had not done enough to protect the area from Russian threats.<\/p>\n

Located between North America and the Arctic, Greenland is a useful base for early warning systems against missile attacks and for monitoring vessels in the region.<\/p>\n

It is also a potential source of rare earth minerals as well as oil and gas, all of which could become more accessible as global warming leads to the melting of the ice sheet that covers the island.<\/p>\n

Trump has said \u201ccomplete and total purchase\u201d of the Danish territory is essential for US and global security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland,\u201d he has warned.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, he said he would place a 10% levy on goods exported to the US from the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.<\/p>\n

The tax would come into force from 1 February, rising to 25% on 1 June.<\/p>\n

If Trump follows through on his threat to impose tariffs, it could be damaging to the UK economy, whose biggest overseas customer, by country, is the US.<\/p>\n

Economists have estimated the new tariffs could take 0.5% off the UK\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n

The threat of tensions hit stock markets in Europe on Monday morning, with carmakers and luxury goods firms seeing some of the biggest falls.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Badenoch said she agreed with the prime minister on Greenland\u2019s sovereignty, adding that tariff threats are \u201ca terrible idea\u201d.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s First Minister John Swinney has also condemned the threat of tariffs, saying they should \u201cnot be a bargaining chip in place of reasonable dialogue between partners\u201d.<\/p>\n

The leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey said he was \u201ca bit disappointed\u201d, saying that the prime minister had taken \u201cretaliatory tariffs off the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cno-one wants a trade war\u201d but \u201cas our European neighbours and others are doing, they\u2019re keeping this threat on the table to show that we\u2019re not going to be bullied by Donald Trump \u2013 the way to beat a bully is to show that you\u2019re serious and will stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: \u201cThis is not how you treat your best friends\u201d, adding that he would be \u201chaving some words\u201d with members of Trump\u2019s team when he travels to Davos this week.<\/p>\n

He said he that Brexit meant the UK were \u201cfree to negotiate directly\u201d with the US.<\/p>\n

Lord Mandelson, former British ambassador to the US, told Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live that the US president \u201cexpects direct language\u201d adding: \u201cHe will not be surprised if people talk directly back, but respectfully, not through a megaphone, not by shouting at him from the other side of the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what Starmer does, and he\u2019s absolutely right not to do so. I think that there are other European leaders, frankly, who could do worse than take their cue from our own prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TradePrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said a trade war is in “no one’s interest” after Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tax on imports from the UK and other countries that oppose his plans to take control of Greenland.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14984,1910,10,9,9299,15639,15640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greenland","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-prime-minister-sir-keir-starmer","category-trade-war","category-trump-tariff"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}