President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Tuesday that France would not capitulate to bullying and attempts to undermine European sovereignty after President Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on a bloc of European nations until Denmark agrees to sell Greenland.
“We are reaching a time of instability and imbalances,” Mr. Macron said in his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He added that the answer was “more cooperation,” not a system that accepts “the law of the strongest.”
Trade decisions by the United States that undermine European exports and demand “maximum concessions,” Mr. Macron said, are aimed to “weaken and subordinate Europe.” He added that the “endless accumulation of new tariffs” was “unacceptable,” particularly when used as “leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
France is one of eight nations Mr. Trump has threatened will be hit with an additional 10 percent tariff on exports to the United States beginning on Feb. 1 if those countries do not drop their opposition to the U.S. acquisition of Greenland from Denmark. That rate would increase to 25 percent on June 1 if they stand firm.
Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous Danish territory, have said they are not interested in handing Greenland over to the United States. The dispute has threatened the NATO alliance, as President Trump has raised the possibility of seizing Greenland by force if Denmark does not agree to cede it to the United States.
European leaders have so far reacted with unified outrage to Mr. Trump’s coercive measures on Greenland, a massive Arctic island the president has argued the United States must control to check Chinese and Russian influence. European leaders are considering striking back with their own trade measures through a tool known as the anti-coercion instrument, which could be used to impose limitations on big American technology companies.
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Macron echoed previous calls for invoking those limitations. But he also advocated more broadly a shift to an effective and cooperative form of multilateralism, urging a collective effort to work against the weakening of international institutions intended to keep global power balanced.
“We do prefer respect to bullies,” Mr. Macron said.
Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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