WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on many countries for many different reasons.
On Monday, he found a new purpose for his favorite economic tool. Trump said he would “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if it refused to allow Greenland — a North American island that is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark — to become part of the United States.
“They should give it up, because we need it for national security,” Trump said of Greenland.
Denmark, which has a smaller population than New York City, is not a huge trading partner for the United States. But despite its small size, Denmark, which handles Greenland’s foreign and security affairs, is home to some products that are very well-loved in America, goods that could become more expensive if Trump follows through with heavy tariffs. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, a trade data platform, roughly half of Denmark’s recent exports to the United States are packaged medicines, insulin, vaccines and antibiotics.
That’s largely because the country is home to Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, the popular weight loss drugs. The company is so important to the Danish economy — it has recently accounted for half of Denmark’s private-sector job growth and all of the country’s economic growth — that some have branded Denmark a “pharmastate.”
Novo Nordisk is increasing its U.S. production to meet the soaring demand for its GLP-1 weight loss products. The company does not specify publicly how much of its products are exported, but it produces drugs in Denmark and the United States for the U.S. market.
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said in a statement that they were following the situation closely but would not comment on hypotheticals and speculation.
Gilberto Garcia, the chief economist at Datawheel and a member of the Observatory of Economic Complexity team, said that Denmark’s exports of immunological products, which includes drugs like Ozempic, have been “growing exponentially.”
Denmark is also the leading supplier to the United States of hearing aids, he said.
Beyond medicines, Denmark also sends the United States medical instruments, fish fillets, pig meat, coal tar oil, petroleum and baked goods, among other products, according to the OEC.
And notably, for many children (and adults), Denmark is home to Lego Group, the world’s largest toymaker.
It’s not clear how much Lego exports directly from Denmark to the United States; the company serves much of the U.S. market from a factory in Mexico, as well as a new carbon-neutral facility in Virginia. It also manufactures the toy bricks in factories in Hungary, the Czech Republic, China and Vietnam, as well as Denmark.