00:00And Mr. Benefey, thank you so much for joining us here live on Europe Today.
00:04Thank you. Good morning.
00:06So look, if President Trump does follow through with his threats,
00:09we're looking at a full-blown trade war.
00:12What will that mean for Europeans?
00:15Well, we are brought in this direction by the escalation that was built by President Trump.
00:24We do not want to be here.
00:26We have been always clear. We value the transatlantic relationship.
00:31We want good relations with the United States.
00:35But what is happening in these days is crossing another red line.
00:38In fact, it's threatening a NATO country.
00:42Greenland is part of Denmark.
00:45And so I think a very important thing is that whatever deterrence measures we propose,
00:52which can be further tariffs in case Trump goes on with his intent or the anti-coercion instrument that will damage U.S. economy,
01:07the important thing is that we are clear what are the conditions for this to be activated.
01:13My experience working on the relations with the U.S. is that we are not credible if we just say we are ready to use measures,
01:22but we do not clearly, calmly say what are the conditions for that to be triggered.
01:28And in my view, we should set a clear deadline.
01:31If in a few weeks we do not have clarity and an agreement on the future of Greenland,
01:38I think we need to be clear that the measures will be activated.
01:42Because now, of course, the EU is choosing diplomacy over these punitive tools.
01:46Why is now not the moment to use these tough trade measures, Mr. Benefey?
01:51Well, I think that any tentative to still have a diplomatic solution must be used until the very end.
01:59But there must be an end.
02:01The problem of Europe is that this end of the tentative to find a diplomatic solution sometimes seems to never end.
02:10And this is profited by, in this case, the U.S., who think we are not credible.
02:15We are not serious about the possible consequences.
02:18So I think we need to be clear that there would be very bad consequences for the U.S. economy if Trump administration goes in that direction.
02:29And I know, I know because of my work, that many in the Congress are on our safe side.
02:36I hope and I wish that many more voices in the U.S. Congress will raise to say that this madness has to end
02:45and that we need to sit down and work together as allies.
02:50And indeed, we've seen, of course, volatility this morning on the financial markets.
02:53Our viewers back home exactly concerned as well, worried about the impact this could have on them.
02:58But many, of course, calling as well for the EU-U.S. trade deal to be frozen, to be put on hold.
03:04That could be a strong move the Europeans could play here.
03:06Yeah, I think that's inevitable because as extra tariffs are being threatened,
03:14the agreement in this moment seems to be not fulfilled from the U.S. side.
03:21There should never be such a threat of further tariffs because of the presence of military from a certain state in Greenland.
03:30But this is what we heard from President Trump.
03:34So, inevitably, the vote that was foreseen next week in the Trade Committee of the European Parliament
03:41to actually advance the deal will be frozen.
03:45I'm sure this will be the result.
03:47I hope that we will be able to resume this work soon and that the relations go back to normal.
03:54But this is not the situation today.
03:55And I think we need to be very serious.
03:57Indeed, Brando Benefey, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
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