This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos is unfolding against an unusually fraught backdrop for the transatlantic relationship. President Donald Trump arrives as the instigator of a political-economic confrontation with Europe over Greenland that threatens to fracture what remains of the post-war alliance model.

What began as Washington’s renewed push to acquire Greenland – a move long resisted by Copenhagen and treated in Europe as an eccentric footnote – has now escalated into a coercive tariff threat on European imports: 10 percent beginning in early February, rising to 25 percent by summer, unless negotiations over the island’s future move in Washington’s favor.

Europe has reacted with unity, warning of a “dangerous downward spiral,” and presenting a coordinated front among EU and NATO members, including Denmark, Germany, France, the UK, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Moreover, arguing that Washington’s approach cannot remain without consequence, Brussels is considering a retaliatory trade response on US goods amounting to as much as $109 billion.

But the........

© TRT World