We need to avoid trade war over Greenland, WTO Director General says

All sides need to find ways to de-escalate a dispute over U.S. demands to take owership of Greenland so that it does not end up in an all-out trade war, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Tuesday.

"We need to find a way to ensure it doesn't result in a trade war because a trade war will hurt not only those engaged in it but have negative spillovers for others," she said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"I think what we are seeing and hearing in Davos is kind of a little bit of a dialling down - 'let's dialogue, let's talk'."

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened at the weekend to raise extra tariffs on eight European nations unless a deal was struck under which the United States could buy Greenland from Denmark.

-Mark John/Reuters