BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s leading trade lawmakers on Wednesday postponed a decision on whether to freeze a U.S. trade deal over Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland.

Trump says tariffs increase the amount of tax raised by the government, encourage consumers to buy more American-made goods and boost investment in the US. He wants to reduce the US trade deficit - the gap between the value of goods it buys from other countries and those it sells to them.