Trump's threat to impose sweeping tariffs on eight European countries over their refusal to sell Greenland has pushed the European Union into unfamiliar territory. Trade disputes between allies are nothing new, but using tariffs as leverage over territorial sovereignty is something else entirely.
For many Europeans, the question is not only why Greenland has become such a flashpoint, but how the European Union can respond if economic pressure replaces diplomacy. Behind closed doors in Brussels, that question has led to the revival of a term that sounds more at home on a battlefield than in a trade meeting: "bazooka".
Despite the dramatic nickname, the so-called trade bazooka is not a weapon in the conventional sense. It is shorthand for the EU's most powerful legal tool to defend itself when foreign governments use economic threats (like tariffs, investment bans or market pressure) to force political decisions. The idea is simple: if economic pressure is being used as leverage, Europe should have a way to push back.
That tool exists, and it has a formal name: the Anti-Coercion Instrument. It was approved in 2023, after years in which European leaders felt increasingly vulnerable to economic pressure from major powers, particularly the United States and China. At the time, the goal was deterrence (to make clear that coercion would come at a cost) rather than retaliation.
Until now, the instrument has never been activated. But Trump's Greenland tariff threat has changed the tone of the debate. What was once a theoretical safeguard is suddenly being discussed as a real option, with Macron openly urging Brussels to consider using it. "He will be in contact all day with his European counterparts and will ask, in the name of France, the activation of the Anti-Coercion Instrument," Macron's office said on Sunday.
As EU diplomats gather for emergency talks, the conversation is no longer just about tariffs or trade figures. It is about sovereignty, alliances, and how far Europe is willing to go to defend its political autonomy when economic pressure is applied. And at the center of that conversation sits a question many Europeans are now asking for the first time: Should Europe fire this "bazooka" for the first time?