Image: Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

Donald Trump has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland.

Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenland’s continued status as an autonomous Danish territory, the president backed down.

The US will not hit Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland with tariffs of 10% from 1 February after all, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. Over the weekend, he had also threatened to lift the tariffs to 25% from 1 June.

The threat had prompted widespread apprehension; criticism from senior European politicians, who declared they “will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed”; and warnings from economists.

European Union leaders had threatened to deploy the bloc’s so-called anti-coercion instrument (ACI), otherwise known as the “trade bazooka”, which would have allowed the EU to retaliate in defense of coercion measures through extraordinary trade sanctions.

After what he called a “very productive” meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Wednesday, Trump claimed he had formed “the framework” of a deal over Greenland, without providing more information.

“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1,” the president said.

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