Europe must consider retaliating against Trump's tariff ‘blackmail,’ business leaders tell CNBC

Business groups have told CNBC that the EU must consider retaliatory measures in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on the bloc.

The EU has frozen its EU-US trade deal in response to Trump announcing plans to impose 10% tariffs on six EU nations, alongside the U.K. and Norway from Feb. 1 on Saturday. There have been calls for the bloc to consider using its anti-coercion instrument (ACI), a set of measures that allow it to impose sweeping trade sanctions. 

"All EU trade defense instruments — including the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) — must now be reviewed," Volker Treier, chief executive of foreign trade at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), which represents nearly 4 million businesses, told CNBC. He added that the ACI should be a "last resort."

Europe should be "prepared to act decisively if our interests are put at risk" while continuing to work for de-escalation, Ole Erik Almlid, CEO of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, which represents thousands of businesses, told CNBC.

"Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed, not even by the United States," Bertram Kawlath, president of the German industrial sector association VDMA, which represents 3,500 engineering companies, said in a statement on Sunday.

"Greenland is part of Europe and must remain so. If the EU gives in here, it will only encourage the American president to make the next ludicrous demand and threaten further tariffs," he said, adding that the European Commission should examine whether the ACI can be used.

Should tariffs go ahead on February 1, as Trump has previously threatened, the impact of European businesses could be significant, business leaders have warned.

Analysis by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 10% tariffs on U.S. exports could cost U.K. businesses £6 billion, rising to £15 billion, or $20 billion, in June — when Trump has said tariffs would increase to 25% if the countries continue to resist his Greenland plans.

"The UK is not without influence, our bilateral trade with the US is worth £300bn, we have £500bn invested in its economy and it has £700bn tied up in ours," BCC Director General Shevaun Haviland said. "There is a high-level of co-dependency. The government should keep everything on the table during talks."

Deutsche Bank analysts on Monday said European countries' huge holdings in U.S. assets give it an advantage, as it weighed counter-measures.

But new tariffs from the U.S. would result in further "significant" cuts to trade and transatlantic business for German companies, Treier told CNBC. 

The European mechanical and plant engineering industry is already disproportionately affected by U.S. tariffs because many products are subject to 50% levies on steel and aluminium, Kawlath said. 

"Added to this are high bureaucratic costs, which prevent many transactions," he added. "More than half of all exported machinery could be affected."