Trump's Greenland tariffs prompt calls for unprecedented EU counter-steps

BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (Reuters): The European Union faced calls on Sunday to implement a never-before-used range of economic counter-measures known as the "Anti-Coercion Instrument" as part of the bloc's response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against European allies over Greenland.

Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark's vast Arctic island.

All the countries, already subject to tariffs of 10% and 15%, have sent small numbers of military personnel to Greenland.

Cyprus, holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency, summoned ambassadors to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday, which EU diplomats said was due to start at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT).

A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said he was working to coordinate a European response and was pushing for activation of the Anti-Coercion Instrument, which could limit access to public tenders in the bloc or restrict trade in services in which the U.S. has a surplus with the EU.

In social media posts late on Saturday, Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament's trade committee, and Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, echoed his call, as did Germany's engineering association on Sunday.