Catherine Field: France Correspondent on European leaders' handling of Trump's attempts to take control of Greenland

Europe is split on how to handle Donald Trump's escalating attempts to take control of Greenland.  

The US President's said he will impose tariffs on eight European countries unless he can buy the Danish territory.  

Newstalk ZB's Paris Correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking the bull is in the china shop, and leaders can't agree on next steps.  

She says for example, the Germans want a combative approach behind closed doors while appearing conciliatory in public. 

Field says on the other hand, the French President wants to use what they're calling the bazooka, which would see the US hit with $190-billion worth of tariffs. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catherine Field, how are you.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm wonderful. Thank you very much. Mike, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be back
and to hear your glorious voice. Now, my thinking on
this from the other side of the world is, I
know you're all angsty, and I know what Trump's like
and all that stuff, but he's not invading Greenland. He's
not going to buy it. Something eventually will be sorted.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Do you agree, Well, the bulls in the china shop,
let's put it that way. And no one knows quite
what to do. This has been coming for a long time.
The EU still can't agree on what it needs to do.
They have really split. The Germans are very clear that

(00:46):
what needs to be done is the hind closed door.
Be more combative, but in public, be more conciliatory. French
President Emanuel Macron says, hey, no, this has gone too far.
Let's use what they calling the bazooka, which is impose
a one hundred and ninety billion New Zealand dollar worth

(01:08):
of tariffs on the Americans and put into play spots
called an anti coercion instrument, which would shut off American
companies from the EU. Single market, So that means American
companies would not have access to five hundred million consumers,
it would limit trade licenses, and they wouldn't be able
to get involved in public procurement. But they can't agree

(01:30):
on that at the moment. So what we're all looking for,
Mike is Wednesday, the big day. Everyone's going to be
in DeVos, hoping to get that chance to buttonhole the
US President Donald Trump, to say to him this has
got to stop. We're determined you can't go on like this.
But of course we've been done this before. Trump just

(01:51):
keeps ramping up the pressure, and of course there's going
to be that big US presidence at Davos, You've got
Secretary of State Treasury Commerce. But certainly now Mike, I
have to say, everyone's holding their breath, wondering how much
further can this escalate?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
And where does this leave NATO? If Trump does whatever
Trump means up doing with Greenland, what happens with.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
NATO, Well, NATO can actually survive without the US. It's
just going to be a lot more expensive because NATO
members would have to really quickly buy lots of equipment.
I think the thing you have to remember, Mike is
NATO has a framework, it's got a command structure, it's
got a doctrine, it's got a way of doing business
that's been built up over what seventy five years, so

(02:36):
they could still work out that way. So it's a
very successful military alliance. If it does disappear, it will
go done in history. Is one that kept the piece
for many generations. Thirty two member states, so it will
have to up its game again. We're looking at the problem, Mike,
of how do you get tough with Trump without having

(02:56):
him just walk away from the Ukraine peace process. That's
a problem. However, in the last couple of hours, the
French President Manual Macron has told his cabinet, the big
cabinet meeting at the LUSA Palace, and I'm quoting here,
to be free, you have to be feared. We weren't
feared enough.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
No, okay, well we'll see what happens over the next
couple of days. I guess by the way that Louver robbery.
But they've found anything of anything happened to that.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
No, nothing, Actually, that's still got four suspects and custody.
It would seem that they're not talking. The original suggestion
that this was just an opportunist, heister, since we've been
going up the window because of the way those four
actually operated afterwards, abandoned their scooters for a van, knew
where to change to from their scooters to a van

(03:45):
an area that didn't have closed circuit TV, and they
still haven't found the jewels.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Good to catch up Katherine Catherinfield back next Tuesday. Of course,
the other thing I note in that particular part of
the world is reading over the holidays. Algeria's parliament unanimously
passed a law declared or in France's colonization of their
country are a crime, and they want an apology and
they want reparations. So we'll see where that goes.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
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