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Britain would ‘never rule out’ retaliatory tariffs over Trump’s Greenland threats, says UK chancellor

LONDON — Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned Britain “would never rule anything out” when it comes to retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. administration, following Donald Trump’s latest Greenland tariff threats.

Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday morning, Reeves said the U.K. “would not be buffeted around,” while stressing she had been reassured by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that the trade deal struck between Britain and Washington “will stand.”

EU leaders have toughened their position ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech in Davos on Wednesday afternoon.

Germany has joined France in urging the European Commission to prepare its most powerful trade weapon — the Anti-Coercion Instrument — if Trump refuses to back down on his threats, according to five diplomats with knowledge of the situation.

The tool would allow the bloc to impose tariffs, restrictions on investment and public procurement, and limits on intellectual property protections. 

On Wednesday morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the U.S. president’s “proposed additional tariffs are simply wrong,” warning that an escalation would only “embolden the adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of our strategic landscape.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday called for calm over the U.S.’s fraught trade relationship with the EU and U.K., warning that the “worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.”

“What I’m urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out,” he said.

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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