The UK is facing potential new US tariffs after Donald Trump threatened to impose trade penalties on Britain and seven other European countries unless the United States is allowed to buy Greenland.

The US president said a 10% tariff would be introduced from 1 February on imports from the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.

He warned the rate would rise to 25% from 1 June if no agreement was reached for what he described as “the complete and total purchase of Greenland”.

Yesterday (18 January) prime minister Sir Keir Starmer strongly criticised the move, calling it “completely wrong” to impose tariffs on allies who are “pursuing the collective security of NATO allies”.

He said the UK government would be “pursuing this directly with the US administration”.

The threat has raised concerns about the potential impact on the UK economy.

Economists have warned that tariffs of this scale could damage exports and risk tipping Britain into recession at a time of already weak growth. The US is the UK’s largest trading partner, accounting for 17.8% of total trade, according to the Office for National Statistics.

British Chambers of Commerce head of trade policy William Bain told the Independent: “New tariffs on goods exported to the US will be more bad news for UK exporters, already struggling with the tariffs levied last year.

“We know trade is one way to boost the economy and the success of transatlantic trade depends on reducing, not raising, tariffs.”

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