Sweden's prime minister takes a shot at Trump's tariffs while standing right next to Trump

pulse

March 6, 2018 10:56 PM

"I'm convinced that increased tariffs will hurt us all in the long run," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said in a press conference with President Trump.

During a press conference with President Donald Trump, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said that "increased tariffs will hurt us all in the long run."
The comment comes after Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the US.
The US is the second-largest destination for Swedish steel.

Swedish Prime Minister

"The European Union has been particularly tough on the United States, they make it almost impossible for us to do business with them and yet they send their cars and everything else back into the United States," Trump said. "And they can do whatever they like, but if they do that then we put a big tax on 25% on their cars."

One of the major fears of industry groups, economists, and lawmakers is that the broad tariffs will result in a trade war, tit-for-tat battle with countries imposing increasingly restrictive trade policies.

Trump appeared unconcerned by the idea of a trade war, echoing a tweet from Friday in which the president said trade wars "are good, and easy to win."

"When we're behind on every single country, trade wars aren't so bad, you know what I mean?" Trump said, referring to trade deficits. "When we're down by 30 billion, 40 billion, 60 billion, 100 billion, the trade war hurts them not us."

Despite the tough talk, Trump appeared to soften his stance towards the end of his response on the tariffs.

"We'll do it in a very loving way, a loving, loving way, they'll like us better and they'll respect us much more," Trump said.

pulse