US President Donald Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on eight European countries unless Denmark accepts a deal over Greenland has drawn swift rebukes from Nordic capitals and major European leaders, fueled calls for an EU-level response, and cast fresh doubt over the implementation of last year's EU-US tariff "truce," the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said the US would levy a 10-percent tariff from February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Finland. He warned the rate would rise to 25 percent on June 1 and remain in place until a deal is reached for the "complete and total purchase" of Greenland.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the tariff threat was a “surprise” given the “constructive meeting” with top US officials earlier this week in Washington, AP reported.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store called the threats "unacceptable" in comments to national news agency NTB, saying threats have no place among allies and reiterating Norway's support for the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said issues among allies are best resolved through discussion, not pressure, warning that tariffs could harm transatlantic relations and trigger a dangerous downward spiral, CNN reported.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson rejected the tariff as "blackmail," saying Sweden "will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed" and arguing the matter should be handled at EU level.

Other European leaders also signaled a tougher posture should Washington move ahead with the measures.

Calling the tariff threat "unacceptable," French President Emmanuel Macron said Europeans would respond in a united and coordinated manner should the measures be confirmed, Reuters reported Saturday.

He said France's participation in a Denmark-organized exercise in Greenland reflects France's commitment to national sovereignty and independence, stressing that "no intimidation or threat will influence us."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was "completely wrong" to apply tariffs on allies for pursuing collective security within NATO, adding that Britain would raise the issue directly with the US administration and reiterating that Greenland's future should be decided by Greenlanders and Danes, BBC reported Sunday.

The German government also said it was coordinating closely with European partners and that an appropriate response would be decided jointly in due course.

At the EU level, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa warned in a joint statement that tariffs linked to Greenland would undermine transatlantic ties and risk a "dangerous downward spiral," Euronews.com reported Sunday.

They underlined that territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law, and said Europe would remain "united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty."

The episode has also reignited debate over whether the EU should activate stronger defensive trade tools, including the bloc's so-called "bazooka," the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), and has further complicated the politics surrounding EU-US trade arrangements in the European Parliament, Xinhua reported.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, urged the European Commission to launch the ACI immediately, calling Trump's tariff threat "unbelievable" and "a new dimension" in the use of tariffs as a political weapon.

Lange said the US step would amount to another breach of the political EU-US tariff and trade deal agreed in Scotland in July 2025, adding that the European Parliament would revisit the issue with political groups next week. He said he could not imagine "business as usual" continuing and expected parliamentary work on the file to be suspended.

Manfred Weber, chair of the European People's Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, said Sunday on Facebook that, given Trump's threats over Greenland, approval of the EU-US trade deal was "not possible" at this stage and that any move toward zero tariffs on US products should be put on hold.

Cyprus, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said late Saturday it had called an emergency meeting for Sunday, with ambassadors from the EU's 27 member states set to convene to coordinate next steps, Xinhua reported.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Sunday that this tariff threat stems from Trump's typical transactional mindset of resorting to tariffs to solve other problems.

“The threat has highlighted a tendency for Trump to solve every matter, including a sovereign matter, with the imposition of tariffs. This came on top of tariff approaches over drugs and immigration issues,” Zhou said.

“However, for Europe, some issues are fundamentally not for transaction,” Zhou said. He believes that such a statement will further frustrate the people of Europe and it is possible that some European companies will reconsider their business ties with the US, Zhou said, noting that US-EU economic trade and investment relations could be affected as the matter unfold.

“In fact, what the US is doing to Europe is also a kind of hybrid warfare – the US is deploying every pressure tool it can think of against Europe,” Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.

The US is instrumentalizing Europe’s dependence with the US with the goal to force Europe to accept American conditions so that Washington can achieve its objectives, Cui added.

By escalating pressure on the Greenland issue and resorting to tariff threats, the White House’s coercion would deepen the transatlantic divide, Cui said.