January 21, 2026
Today, in addition to retaliatory tariffs, the European Parliament froze the EU-US trade deal following President Donald Trump’s repeated statements and tariff increases regarding Greenland.
Donald Bryson, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, issues the following statement:
“The European Union’s response to President Trump’s tariff threats confirms that this dispute has moved beyond rhetoric and into real economic terrain.
A study released last week by the John Locke Foundation examined this scenario, finding that retaliation by major trading partners poses serious risks to North Carolina’s agriculture and export-dependent economy.
What matters economically is not the specific dispute, but the mechanism: once tariffs and countermeasures are signaled, export demand weakens, prices come under pressure, and investment decisions change. As markets and European policymakers are now signaling, that process is already underway.”
