Görg on Trump’s blackmail strategy: “Then the trade order would be completely dead

US President Donald Trump is imposing an additional 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China until the crises of illegal migration and drugs are alleviated. A week ago, President Trump also threatened to implement steep tariffs on imports from Colombia after the country barred deportation flights from landing. In the end, Colombia agreed to accept deported migrants, temporarily avoiding a trade war between the two countries. These events suggest that US President Trump uses tariff threats as an all-purpose instrument for each challenge facing the US. In a recent interview, Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D. (KCG Managing Director) argued that if blackmail is used as a method in international affairs, “then the trade order would be completely dead.” He emphasized the importance of the EU reacting as a whole to Trump’s challenges. Taking Greenland as an example, if Trump threatens to impose high tariffs on all exports from Denmark, “the EU as a whole must react; this cannot be a Danish-American conflict. If we act together, we have a completely different market power.”

His interview (in German) “Schroeder, K. (2025), Erpressung als Method: ‘Dann Wäre die Handelsordnung komplett tot’ (Blackmail as a method: ‘Then the trade order would be completely dead’), Caipital, 28.01.2025“ can be found here.

Contact:
Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D. (holger.goerg@ifw-kiel.de; +49(0)431-8814-258)