FRANKFURT, JAN 20 (DNA): US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat against Europe over Greenland has hit its top economy Germany just as hopes are growing for a modest recovery after years of stagnation.
Germany’s government and its export-reliant businesses were blindsided when Trump again wielded the tariffs axe at the weekend — this time sparked by his anger over a geopolitical rather than an economic dispute.
“For Germany, these new tariffs would be absolute poison,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski told AFP, adding that the heightened uncertainties “clearly jeopardise the fragile recovery underway”.
Huge public spending to rebuild Germany’s armed forces and ageing infrastructure have boosted hopes for a stronger rebound this year, and the government has predicted GDP will expand by 1.3 percent in 2026.
That was before Trump — angered by pushback against his desire to seize Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland — threatened additional tariffs of up to 25 percent on products from eight European countries, including Germany.
The news — which drove down stocks and saw safe-haven assets like gold rise — rattled German companies and provoked a mix of puzzlement and anger.
“Greenland is taking this madness to extremes,” Thorsten Bauer, co-head of laser maker Xiton Photonics, told AFP while on a business trip in the United States, expressing a sentiment shared by many business leaders.
